Opinion Dynamics

This is a cellular automaton model where each agent lives in a cell on a 2D grid, and never moves.

An agent's state represents its "opinion" and is shown by the color of the cell the agent lives in. Each color represents an opinion - there are 16 of them. At each time step, an agent's opinion is influenced by that of its neighbors, and changes to the most common one found; ties are randomly arbitrated. As an agent adapts its thinking to that of its neighbors, the cell color changes.

Parameters you can play with

(you must change the code to alter the parameters at this stage)

• Vary the number of opinions.
• Vary the size of the grid
• Change the grid from fixed borders to a torus continuum

Observe

• how groups of like minded agents form and evolve
• how sometimes a single opinion prevails
• how some minority or fragmented opinions rapidly disappear

How to Run

To run the model interactively, run run.py in this directory. e.g.

    $ python run.py

Then open your browser to http://127.0.0.1:8521/ and press Reset, then Run.

Files

• color_patches/model.py: Defines the cell and model classes. The cell class governs each cell's behavior. The model class itself controls the lattice on which the cells live and interact.
• color_patches/server.py: Defines an interactive visualization.
• run.py: Launches an interactive visualization

Credits

All credits go to Project Mesa for developing this model.

Further Reading

Inspired from this model from San Jose University
Other similar models: Schelling Segregation Model