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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 21, 2026

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior

Published on: January 19, 2019

Accelerating consensus on coevolving networks: the effect of committed individuals.

P Singh¹, S Sreenivasan, B K Szymanski

¹Department of Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

|June 12, 2012

Summary

Social network evolution driven by homophily can slow opinion spread. Introducing committed individuals, however, significantly accelerates consensus, changing growth from exponential to logarithmic with network size.

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Area of Science:

Social network analysis
Computational social science
Opinion dynamics

Background:

Social networks are dynamic structures influenced by homophily, the tendency to connect with similar individuals.
Understanding how network evolution impacts the spread of opinions, ideas, or behaviors is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of homophily-driven network evolution on opinion spread.
To analyze the role of committed individuals in accelerating consensus in evolving social networks.

Main Methods:

Simulations of a modified Axelrod model on a network with a homophily-based rewiring rule.
Analysis of consensus time scaling with network size (N) under varying conditions.

Main Results:

Homophily-driven rewiring generally impedes consensus, leading to exponentially increasing consensus time with network size.
Introduction of committed agents dramatically reduces consensus time, shifting its growth to logarithmic with network size beyond a critical fraction.
Minor changes in interaction rules yield different consensus time scaling but preserve the benefit of committed agents.

Conclusions:

Network evolution via homophily can hinder widespread agreement.
Committed individuals are effective catalysts for achieving consensus in homophilous, evolving social networks.
The strategy of incorporating committed agents to expedite consensus is robust across different interaction rules.