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Updated: Aug 4, 2026

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
Competition-driven network dynamics: emergence of a scale-free leadership structure and collective efficiency
M Anghel1, Zoltán Toroczkai, Kevin E Bassler
1Center for Nonlinear Studies and Complex Systems Group, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS B213 Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Abstract:
Using the minority game as a model for competition dynamics, we investigate the effects of interagent communications across a network on the global evolution of the game. Agent communication across this network leads to the formation of an influence network, which is dynamically coupled to the evolution of the game, and it is responsible for the information flow driving the agents' actions. We show that the influence network spontaneously develops hubs with a broad distribution of in-degrees, defining a scale-free robust leadership structure. Furthermore, in realistic parameter ranges, facilitated by information exchange on the network, agents can generate a high degree of cooperation making the collective almost maximally efficient.
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