The consequences of hesitation: Axelrod model with intrinsic noise

TL;DR

This paper investigates how intrinsic noise, proportional to disagreement, affects the Axelrod model, preventing frozen states and revealing different behaviors depending on whether the noise impacts agents or their interactions.

Contribution

It introduces an intrinsic noise mechanism into the Axelrod model, showing its effects on system dynamics and phase behavior, which differs from external noise influences.

Findings

Intrinsic noise prevents frozen states in large systems.

Behavior varies depending on whether noise affects agents or their interactions.

System dynamics are significantly altered by intrinsic noise.

Abstract

We study the influence of hesitating agents in the Axelrod model by introducing an intrinsic noise, which is proportional to the disagreement between the interacting agents, and thus coupled to the dynamics. Our results show that, unlike the effect of the cultural drift where the noise is just controlled by an external parameter, the intrinsic noise never allows the system to reach a frozen state in the thermodynamic limit. Moreover, we show that when the intrinsic noise affects the agents' variables, the system's behaviour is also different from the case when it affects the network of their interactions.