Year: 2007
Communications in Computational Physics, Vol. 2 (2007), Iss. 2 : pp. 177–195
Abstract
For some models of relevance in the social sciences we review some examples in which system size plays an important role in the final outcome of the dynamics. We discuss the conditions under which changes of behavior can appear only when the number of agents in the model takes a finite value. Those changes of behavior can be related to the apparent phase transitions that appear in some physical models. We show examples in the Galam's model of opinion transmission and the Axelrod's model of culture formation stressing the role that the network of interactions has on the main results of both models. Finally, we present the phenomenon of system-size stochastic resonance by which a forcing signal (identified as an advertising agent) is optimally amplified by a population of the right (intermediate) size. Our work stresses the role that the system size has in the dynamics of social systems and the inappropriateness of taking the thermodynamic limit for these systems.
Journal Article Details
Publisher Name: Global Science Press
Language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/2007-CiCP-7902
Communications in Computational Physics, Vol. 2 (2007), Iss. 2 : pp. 177–195
Published online: 2007-01
AMS Subject Headings: Global Science Press
Copyright: COPYRIGHT: © Global Science Press
Pages: 19
Keywords: Dynamics of social systems finite size effects scaling laws.