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The Simmel Effect: Imitation and Avoidance in Social Hierarchies

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Multi-Agent-Based Simulation (MABS 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1979))

Abstract

The simulation study presented in this paper aims to explore the “Simmel effect”, i.e. persistence of social differences under instability of status symbols, as an effect of imitation and distinctiveness. A spatial version of the Simmel effect is implemented. Following higher level agents (imitation) combined with moving away from lower level ones (distinctiveness) are found to produce a segregating effect, with agents belonging to the same hierarchical level sharing the same symbols of status.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division “AI, Cognitive and Interaction Modeling”, PSS - Project on Social Simulation, IP-CNR, V.le Marx 15, 00137, Roma, Italy

    Roberto Pedone & Rosaria Conte

Authors
  1. Roberto Pedone
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  2. Rosaria Conte
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, Aytoun Building, M1 3GH, Manchester, UK

    Scott Moss

  2. Department of Software Engineering and Computer Science, University of Karlskrona/Ronneby, 372 25, Ronneby, Sweden

    Paul Davidsson

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Pedone, R., Conte, R. (2000). The Simmel Effect: Imitation and Avoidance in Social Hierarchies. In: Moss, S., Davidsson, P. (eds) Multi-Agent-Based Simulation. MABS 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1979. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44561-7_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44561-7_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41522-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44561-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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