How pairs of partners emerge in an initially fully connected society

TL;DR

This paper models social partner formation as a dynamic process on a fully connected graph where resources and interactions evolve, leading to stable pairs or 'marriages' and inactive nodes, illustrating how social bonds emerge.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dynamic model of resource exchange and interaction reorganization that explains the emergence of stable pairs in social networks.

Findings

Stable pairs with symmetric interactions emerge over time.

The proportion of active nodes depends on the rate of interaction change.

The model can be interpreted as a social algorithm leading to marriages.

Abstract

A social group is represented by a graph, where each pair of nodes is connected by two oppositely directed links. At the beginning, a given amount $p(i)$ of resources is assigned randomly to each node $i$. Also, each link $r(i,j)$ is initially represented by a random positive value, which means the percentage of resources of node $i$ which is offered to node $j$. Initially then, the graph is fully connected, i.e. all non-diagonal matrix elements $r(i,j)$ are different from zero. During the simulation, the amounts of resources $p(i)$ change according to the balance equation. Also, nodes reorganise their activity with time, going to give more resources to those which give them more. This is the rule of varying the coefficients $r(i,j)$. The result is that after some transient time, only some pairs $(m,n)$ of nodes survive with non-zero $p(m)$ and $p(n)$, each pair with symmetric and positive $r(m,n)=r(n,m)$. Other coefficients $r(m,i\ne n)$ vanish. Unpaired nodes remain with no resources, i.e. their $p(i)=0$, and they cease to be active, as they have nothing to offer. The percentage of survivors (i.e. those with with $p(i)$ positive) increases with the velocity of varying the numbers $r(i,j)$, and it slightly decreases with the size of the group. The picture and the results can be interpreted as a description of a social algorithm leading to marriages.