The Axelrod model for the dissemination of culture revisited

DOI10.1214/11-AAP790zbMATH Open1245.60095arXiv1004.0365MaRDI QIDQ417086FDOQ417086

Authors: N. Lanchier 

Publication date: 13 May 2012

Published in: The Annals of Applied Probability (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: This article is concerned with the Axelrod model, a stochastic process which similarly to the voter model includes social influence, but unlike the voter model also accounts for homophily. Each vertex of the network of interactions is characterized by a set of $F$ cultural features, each of which can assume $q$ states. Pairs of adjacent vertices interact at a rate proportional to the number of features they share, which results in the interacting pair having one more cultural feature in common. The Axelrod model has been extensively studied during the past ten years, based on numerical simulations and simple mean-field treatments, while there is a total lack of analytical results for the spatial model itself. Simulation results for the one-dimensional system led physicists to formulate the following conjectures. When the number of features $F$ and the number of states $q$ both equal two, or when the number of features exceeds the number of states, the system converges to a monocultural equilibrium in the sense that the number of cultural domains rescaled by the population size converges to zero as the population goes to infinity. In contrast, when the number of states exceeds the number of features, the system freezes in a highly fragmented configuration in which the ultimate number of cultural domains scales like the population size. In this article, we prove analytically for the one-dimensional system convergence to a monocultural equilibrium in terms of clustering when $F=q=2$, as well as fixation to a highly fragmented configuration when the number of states is sufficiently larger than the number of features. Our first result also implies clustering of the one-dimensional constrained voter model.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.0365

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• Fixation in the one-dimensional Axelrod model
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zbMATH Keywords

opinion dynamicssocial influencehomophilyAxelrod modelconstrained voter modelcultural dynamics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Models of societies, social and urban evolution (91D10) Interacting random processes; statistical mechanics type models; percolation theory (60K35)

Cites Work

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• Opinion dynamics with confidence threshold: an alternative to the Axelrod model
• Constrained opinion dynamics: freezing and slow evolution
• Ultimate fate of constrained voters
• Occupation time limit theorems for the voter model

Cited In (23)

• Globalization, polarization and cultural drift
• Consensus in the Hegselmann-Krause model
• How do cultural classes emerge from assimilation and distinction? An extension of the Cucker-Smale flocking model
• Activity of a social dynamics model
• Culture, diffusion, and economic development: the problem of observational equivalence
• Diffusion of innovations in Axelrod's model
• Comfort-driven mobility produces spatial fragmentation in Axelrod's model
• Commitment versus persuasion in the three-party constrained voter model
• Induced monoculture in Axelrod model with clever mass media
• Asymptotic behaviour of the noisy voter model density process
• Probability of consensus in the multivariate Deffuant model on finite connected graphs
• A probabilistic model of the impact of cultural participation on social capital
• EFFECTS OF MASS MEDIA AND CULTURAL DRIFT IN A MODEL FOR SOCIAL INFLUENCE
• A thermodynamic counterpart of the Axelrod model of social influence: the one-dimensional case
• Probability of consensus in spatial opinion models with confidence threshold
• Fixation results for the two-feature Axelrod model with a variable number of opinions
• Role of dimensionality in Axelrod's model for the dissemination of culture
• Opinion dynamics with Lotka-Volterra type interactions
• Limiting behavior for a general class of voter models with confidence threshold
• Fixation in the one-dimensional Axelrod model
• Consensus in the two-state Axelrod model
• Clustering and asymptotic behavior in opinion formation
• Stochastic spatial model for the division of labor in social insects

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