2008/11/05 by S. M.D. Seaver, S. M. D. Seaver, André A. Moreira +9
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · Psychology · #Artificial intelligence #Cognitive psychology #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #Computer science #Computer security #Conservatism #Contrast (vision) #Deadlock #Distributed computing #Econometrics #Economics #Law #Macro #Noise (video) #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #Political science #Position (finance) #Psychology #Task (project management) #physics.soc-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1140/epjb/e2008-00406-4
published as S. M.D. Seaver, A. A. Moreira, M. Sales-Pardo, R. D. Malmgren, D. Diermeier and L. A.N. Amaral Eur. Phys. J. B 67 (3) 369-375 (2009) · 11 pages, 5 figures
openalex publication_date 2008/11/05 · arxiv created 2009/08/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We use agent-based modeling to investigate the effect of conservatism and partisanship on the efficiency with which large populations solve the density classification task--a paradigmatic problem for information aggregation and consensus building. We find that conservative agents enhance the populations' ability to efficiently solve the density classification task despite large levels of noise in the system. In contrast, we find that the presence of even a small fraction of partisans holding the minority position will result in deadlock or a consensus on an incorrect answer. Our results provide a possible explanation for the emergence of conservatism and suggest that even low levels of partisanship can lead to significant social costs.