English

Spontaneous emergence of contrarian-like behaviour in an opinion spreading model

Physics and Society 2009-11-11 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We introduce stochastic driving in the Sznajd model of opinion spreading. This stochastic effect is meant to mimic a social temperature, so that agents can take random decisions with a varying probability. We show that a stochastic driving has a tremendous impact on the system dynamics as a whole by inducing an order-disorder nonequilibrium phase transition. Interestingly, under certain conditions, this stochastic dynamics can spontaneously lead to agents in the system who are analogous to Galam's contarians.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0508029,
  title  = {Spontaneous emergence of contrarian-like behaviour in an opinion spreading model},
  author = {Marta S. de la Lama and Juan M. Lopez and Horacio S. Wio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0508029},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 eps figs, EuroPhys Lett style