English

System size stochastic resonance in a model for opinion formation

Statistical Mechanics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

We study a model for opinion formation which incorporates three basic ingredients for the evolution of the opinion held by an individual: imitation, influence of fashion and randomness. We show that in the absence of fashion, the model behaves as a bistable system with random jumps between the two stable states with a distribution of times following Kramer's law. We also demonstrate the existence of system size stochastic resonance, by which there is an optimal value for the number of individuals N for which the average opinion follows better the fashion.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0409620,
  title  = {System size stochastic resonance in a model for opinion formation},
  author = {Claudio J. Tessone and Raul Toral},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0409620},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

10 pages, to appear in Physica A