We study the Brazilian Popular Music in a network perspective. We call the Brazilian Popular Music Network, BPMN, the graph where the vertices are the song writers and the links are determined by the existence of at least a common singer. The linking degree distribution of such graph shows power...

"Sociophysicists" provoke sociologists: new computer simulation models explain the mechanism which makes moderate individuals radicalise. It is sufficient to be a little self-confident and to keep contact with a few extremists to let extremists win a majority in society.

The consensus model of Deffuant et al is simplified by allowing for many discrete instead of infinitely many continuous opinions, on a directed Barabási-Albert network. A simple scaling law is observed. We then introduce noise and also use a more realistic network and compare the results....

A contribution to the JASSS forum, in reaction to the paper in FASZ about our model of extremism

We propose a thermodynamic multi-state spin model in order to describe equilibrial behavior of a society. Our model is inspired by the Axelrod model used in social network studies. In the framework of the statistical mechanics language, we analyze phase transitions of our model, in which the...

Opinion Dynamics models can be, for most of them, divided between discrete and continuous. They are used in different circumstances and the relationship between them is not clear. Here we will explore the relationship between a model where choices are discrete but opinions are a continuous...

We incorporate the behaviour of tax evasion into the standard two-dimensional Ising model and augment it by providing policy-makers with the opportunity to curb tax evasion via an appropriate enforcement mechanism. We find that tax evasion may vary greatly over time if no measures of control are...

In this article, we use a kinetic description to study the effect of different psychologies on the evolution of the opinion with respect to a binary choice, in a closed group. We show that the interaction between individuals with different reactions regarding the exchange of opinion induces...

We study the effect of inflexible agents on two state opinion dynamics. The model operates via repeated local updates of random grouping of agents. While floater agents do eventually flip their opinion to follow the local majority, inflexible agents keep their opinion always unchanged. It is a...