Effects of Mass Media and Cultural Drift in a Model for Social Influence

Abstract

In the context of an extension of Axelrod's model for social influence, we study the interplay and competition between the cultural drift, represented as random perturbations, and mass media, introduced by means of an external homogeneous field. Unlike previous studies [J. C. González-Avella et al, Phys.Rev. E 72, 065102(R) (2005)], the mass media coupling proposed here is capable of affecting the cultural traits of any individual in the society, including those who do not share any features with the external message. A noise-driven transition is found: for large noise rates, both the ordered (culturally polarized) phase and the disordered (culturally fragmented) phase are observed, while, for lower noise rates, the ordered phase prevails. In the former case, the external field is found to induce cultural ordering, a behavior opposite to 1

Mass media influence spreading in social networks with community structure

“…For the N = 2500 and F = 10 case, the order-disorder transition is observed around r ef f ≈ 10 −4 [25]. When both noise and the mass media external field, M, are taken into account, interplay and competition effects are observed [29]. As the field intensity is increased, the transition shifts to higher noise levels.…”

“…[23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]). In Axelrod's model, culture is defined by the set of cultural attributes (such as language, art, technical standards, and social norms [22]) subject to social influence.…”

The media effect in Axelrod's model explained

“…As pointed out before, the puzzling phenomenon reported first by Shibanai et al [17] and then confirmed by many other authors [19][20][21][22][23] is that for a set of control parameters, say F = 5 and q = 5, the homogeneous regime in the absence of media is replaced by a heterogeneous regime whenever the media is turned on (i.e., for p > 0). This goes against the intuitive idea that the effect of the media is to make the culture more homogeneous.…”

“…This result conflicts with the view that mass media, such as newspapers and television, are instruments to control people's opinions and so homogenize society [18]. The effect of the mass media in Axelrod's model has been extensively investigated (see, e.g., [19][20][21][22]), but no first-principles explanation for it was offered. In fact, much of that research has focused on the search for a threshold on the intensity of the media influence such that 38004-p1 above that threshold, the population is culturally polarized and below it, the population is homogeneous.…”

Effects of mass media action on the Axelrod model with social influence

“…Surprisingly, the Mass Media has been found to be a destabilizing factor which drives the system to a multicultural state [26]. The exception are the works [27][28][29] where different models has been introduced.…”