title: Emergence of social structures via preferential selection.
abstract: We examine a weighted-network multiagent model with preferential selection such that agents choose partners with probability p(w), where w is the number of their past selections. When p(w) increases sublinearly with the number of past selections [p(w)∼w(α),α<1], agents develop a uniform preference for all other agents. At α=1, this state loses stability and more complex structures form. For a superlinear increase (α>1), strong heterogeneities emerge and agents make selections mainly within small and sometimes asymmetric clusters. Even in a few-agent case, the formation of such clusters resembles phase transitions with spontaneous symmetry breaking.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, 61-712 Poznań, Poland.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lipowski
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Modern Languages and Literature, Adam Mickiewicz University, 61-712 Poznań, Poland.
authors.forename: Dorota
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lipowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and I3N, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Antonio Luis
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011336:Probability; D012919:Social Behavior