Opinion formation models on a gradient

Abstract

Statistical physicists have become interested in models of collective social behavior such as opinion formation, where individuals change their inherently preferred opinion if their friends disagree. Real preferences often depend on regional cultural differences, which we model here as a spatial gradient $g$ in the initial opinion. The gradient does not only add reality to the model. It can also reveal that opinion clusters in two dimensions are typically in the standard (i.e.\ independent) percolation universality class, thus settling a recent controversy about a non-consensus model. However, using analytical and numerical tools, we also present a model where the width of the transition between opinions scales $\propto g^{-1/4}$, not $\propto g^{-4/7}$ as in independent percolation, and the cluster size distribution is consistent with first-order percolation.

12 pages, 8 figures, version accepted by PLoS ONE, online supplement added as appendix

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