# Persistence of discrimination: revisiting Axtell, Epstein and Young

## TL;DR

This paper revisits a model of social class emergence, using advanced cognitive and statistical physics methods, and finds that discrimination biases tend to reinforce and persist over time rather than leading to class formation.

## Contribution

It introduces a more detailed cognitive framework into the model and reinterprets previous results, emphasizing the stability of discrimination biases.

## Key findings

- Discrimination biases are reinforced and stable over time.
- The model predicts long-term persistence of biases rather than class emergence.
- Reformulation leads to different social interpretations of the phenomena.

## Abstract

We reformulate an earlier model of the "Emergence of classes..." proposed by Axtell etal. using more elaborate cognitive processes allowing a statistical physics approach. The thorough analysis of the phase space and of the basins of attraction leads to a reconsideration of the previous social interpretations: our model predicts the reinforcement of discrimination biases and their long term stability rather than the emergence of classes.