Axelrod's Model with Surface Tension

Abstract

In this work we propose a subtle change in Axelrod's model for the dissemination of culture. The mechanism consists of excluding non-interacting neighbours from the set of neighbours out of which an agent is drawn for potential cultural interactions. Although the alteration proposed does not alter topologically the configuration space, it yields significant qualitative changes, specifically the emergence of surface tension, driving the system in some cases to metastable states. The transient behaviour is considerably richer, and cultural regions have become stable leading to the formation of different spatio-temporal structures. A new metastable "glassy" phase emerges between the globalised phase and the polarised, multicultural phase.