TY - JOUR
T1 - Finite Size Effects in the Dynamics of Opinion Formation
AU - R. Toral & C. J. Tessone
JO - Communications in Computational Physics
VL - 2
SP - 177
EP - 195
PY - 2007
DA - 2007/02
SN - 2
DO - http://doi.org/
UR - https://global-sci.org/intro/article_detail/cicp/7902.html
KW - Dynamics of social systems, finite size effects, scaling laws.
AB - <p style="text-align: justify;">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&#39;s model of opinion transmission and the Axelrod&#39;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.</p>