Polarization and segregation through conformity pressure and voluntary migration: simulation analysis of co-evolutionary dynamics (Q1656991)

Summary: While conformity pressures people to assimilate in a community, an individual occasionally migrates among communities when the individual feels discomfort. These two factors cause segregation and cultural diversity within communities in the society. By embedding a migration dynamic into \textit{T. Kuran} and \textit{W. H. Sandholm}'s model [Rev. Econ. Stud. 75, No. 1, 201--228 (2008; Zbl 1141.91658)] of preference evolution, we build an agent-based model to see how the variance of preferences in the entire society \textit{quantitatively} changes over time. We find from the Monte Carlo simulations that, while preferences assimilate \textit{within a community}, self-selected migrations enlarge the diversity of preferences \textit{over communities} in the society. We further study how the arrival rate of migration opportunities and the degree of conformity pressures affect the variance of preferences.