The Dissemination of Culture
1997/04/01 by Robert Axelrod · 1,921 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Combinatorics #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Computer science #Convergence (economics) #Economic geography #Economics #Epistemology #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Feature (linguistics) #Geography #Homogeneous #Mathematics #Mechanism (biology) #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Premise #Psychology #Social influence #Social psychology
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0022002797041002001
published in Journal of Conflict Resolution 41(2), 203-226 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1997/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
Despite tendencies toward convergence, differences between individuals and groups continue to exist in beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. An agent-based adaptive model reveals the effects of a mechanism of convergent social influence. The actors are placed at fixed sites. The basic premise is that the more similar an actor is to a neighbor, the more likely that that actor will adopt one of the neighbor's traits. Unlike previous models of social influence or cultural change that treat features one at a time, the proposed model takes into account the interaction between different features. The model illustrates how local convergence can generate global polarization. Simulations show that the number of stable homogeneous regions decreases with the number of features, increases with the number of alternative traits per feature, decreases with the range of interaction, and (most surprisingly) decreases when the geographic territory grows beyond a certain size.
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