Non-monotonic spontaneous magnetization in a Sznajd-like consensus model

Lorenzo Sabatelli and Peter Richmond

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2004, vol. 334, issue 1, 274-280

Abstract: Ising or Potts models of ferromagnetism have been widely used to describe locally interacting social or economic systems. We consider a related model, introduced by Sznajd to describe the evolution of consensus in a society. In this model, the opinion or state of any spins can only be changed through the influence of neighbouring pairs of similarly aligned spins. Such pairs can polarize their neighbours. We show that, assuming the global dynamics evolved in a synchronous manner, the two-state Sznajd model exhibits a non-monotonically decreasing overall orientation that has a maximum value when the system is subject to a finite value of noise. Reinterpreting the model in terms of opinions within a society we predict that consensus can be increased by the addition of an appropriate amount of random noise. These features are explained by the presence of islands of complete orientation that are stable in the absence of noise but removed via the presence of added noise.

Keywords: Statistical mechanics; Cellular automata; Phase transitions; Opinion dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437103009865
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:334:y:2004:i:1:p:274-280

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.10.062

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().