Vacillating voter model is a generalization of the voter model, which shows that contrarian behavior can emerge from imitative interactions [1]. This result is kind of interesting and counter-intuitive as usually, in other models of opinion dynamics, contrarian behavior is being explicitly built in.
A player sinks his fourth shot in a row and the crowd goes wild, while commentators say what the crowd is thinking the magic phrase "he is on fire!" But is he? There is a significant body of literature related to the hot hand in sports. Some of the papers claim that they have found the effect, while the others try to disprove it.
This time we consider another generalization of the Sznajd model, which also includes four opinions. But now they are no longer one-dimensional! In this Authoritarian-conservative-libertarian-socialist (ACLS) Sznajd model opinions are two-dimensional. Namely, there are two binary dimensions: attitudes towards political and personal freedoms are considered at the same time [1].
Last time I have admitted that I have misread one well-known generalization of the Sznajd model. This time I would like to present you the original interpretation proposed by Stauffer in [1]. Though I would like to note that I was still unable to reproduce Stauffer's original result.
<...> Unfortunately, this cross-fertilisation did not really follow through, at least not on a large scale, in spite of the involvement of larger and larger cohorts of physicists in the development of what is now called "econophysics" and "sociophysics". Until recently, mainstream economists have essentially muddled through along the same well-trodden path, developing monetary policy tools based on the idea that agents are rational calculators with infinite foresight, who optimize their "utility function" assuming others will do the same. In 2003, Robert Lucas - one of the dons of Rational Expectations and Nobel Prize recipient in 1995 - claimed that "the central problem of depression prevention had been solved". We know all too well what happened in 2008. <...>
Or so writes J. P. Bouchaud in [1], which is one of the best recently written introductions to econophysics and sociophysics. We invite you to read it on arxiv (see reference for the link) or find it on Europhysics News.
Physics of risk, complexity and socio-economic systems.