The Hunt Opinion Model-An Agent Based Approach to Recurring Fashion Cycles
Authored by Rafal Apriasz, Tyll Krueger, Grzegorz Marcjasz, Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron
Date Published: 2016
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166323
Sponsors:
National Science Centre
Platforms:
MATLAB
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
We study a simple agent-based model of the recurring fashion cycles in
the society that consists of two interacting communities: ``snobs{''}
and ``followers{''} (or ``opinion hunters{''}, hence the name of the
model). Followers conform to all other individuals, whereas snobs
conform only to their own group and anticonform to the other. The model
allows to examine the role of the social structure, i.e. the influence
of the number of inter-links between the two communities, as well as the
role of the stability of links. The latter is accomplished by
considering two versions of the same model - quenched (parameterized by
fraction L of fixed inter-links) and annealed (parameterized by
probability p that a given inter-link exists). Using Monte Carlo
simulations and analytical treatment (the latter only for the annealed
model), we show that there is a critical fraction of inter-links, above
which recurring cycles occur. For p <= 0.5 we derive a relation between
parameters L and p that allows to compare both models and show that the
critical value of inter-connections, p{*}, is the same for both versions
of the model (annealed and quenched) but the period of a fashion cycle
is shorter for the quenched model. Near the critical point, the cycles
are irregular and a change of fashion is difficult to predict. For the
annealed model we also provide a deeper theoretical analysis. We
conjecture on topological grounds that the so-called saddle node
heteroclinic bifurcation appears at p{*}. For p >= 0.5 we show
analytically the existence of the second critical value of p, for which
the system undergoes Hopf's bifurcation.
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Dynamics
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