Axelrod model

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Default-person Eleonora Barelli (Author)

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;; Axelrod's Model for Cultural Evolution is an agent-based model described by
;; Robert Axelrod in his paper:
;; Axelrod, R. 1997. “The dissemination of culture - A model with local convergence and global polarization.”
;;        Journal of Conflict Resolution 41:203-226.
;;
;;
;; 2021 Eleonora Barelli (eleonora.barelli2@unibo.it)
;;
;; -------------------------------------------------- ;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; VARIABLES ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

globals [
  time                            ;; time
  number_of_agents                ;; number of all agents in the society (obtained as world-size^2)
  cult_max                        ;; number associated to the culture with maximum traits for each feature [q-1, q-1, q-1, …, q-1]
  number_of_active_agents         ;; number of agents which have at least one neighbor with overlap in ]0,F[
  number_of_cultures              ;; number of cultures in the society at a certain time
  number_of_cultural_regions      ;; number of cultural regions simply connected
  component-size                  ;; number of agents explored so far in the current component
  giant-component-size            ;; number of agents in the giant component
]

turtles-own [
  culture                         ;; culture of an agent
  explored?                       ;; if the agent is already explored (or not) when determining number of cultural regions
]

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; SETUP PROCEDURES ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;
;; General setup settings: clear plots, create the grid
;;

to setup
  clear-all
  clear-all-plots
  resize-world 0 (world-size - 1) 0 (world-size - 1)   ;; defining the size of the society
  set number_of_agents (world-size * world-size)       ;; there will be as many agents as the patches (not yet created)
  set-patch-size 360 / world-size                      ;; setting patch size for good looking
  ask patches [set pcolor 34]                          ;; setting color of patches
  set giant-component-size 0                           ;; initializing the number of agents in the biggest cultural domain
  set number_of_cultural_regions 0                     ;; initializing the number of the cultural regions
  setup-turtles                                        ;; creating the agents, locating them and setting their cultural values randomly
  reset-ticks
  set time 0
end 

;;
;; Agent settings: create agents, position them in the grid
;;

to setup-turtles
  set-default-shape turtles "person"
  create-turtles number_of_agents [                    ;; creating the agents
    set size 0.9
    while [any? other turtles-here] [ move-to one-of patches ] ;; setting agents' location: only one agent at each patch
  ]
  setup-culture-max                                    ;; assigning a value to the culture with maximum traits value
  setup-agent-culture                                  ;; setting agents culture
  count-cultures                                       ;; counting the amount of different cultures at time = 0
  do-plots                                             ;; plotting for visualization
end 

;;
;; Assigning a value to the culture with maximum traits values
;;

to setup-culture-max
  set cult_max (q ^ F - 1)
end 

;;
;; Assigning a random culture to each agent
;;

to setup-agent-culture
  ask turtles [                               ;; all agents, in a random order, are asked to
    set culture []                            ;; set their own variable “culture” to an empty list, then,
    repeat F [                                ;; F (number of cultural features) times,
      set culture lput random q culture       ;; add at the end of the list a random value in [0, q-1].
    ]                                         ;; Once the list is filled,
    setup-agent-culture-color                 ;; set a color for the agent according to its culture
  ]
end 

;;
;; Setting the color to the agent according to its culture
;;

to setup-agent-culture-color
  ;setting agent culture in base q
  let i 1
  let suma 0
  repeat F [
    set suma suma + item (i - 1) culture * q ^ (F - i)
    set i i + 1
  ]
  let Cult_base_q suma
  ;setting the corresponding color to the turtle according to the culture_base_q value. a range of blue is selected
  set color (9.9 * Cult_base_q / Cult_max) + 100
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; MAIN PROCEDURE ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;
;; Execute all the procedures in their order until there are active agents
;;

to go
  clear-links
  ask turtles [setup-agent-culture-color]                          ;; asking agents to setup their color
  tick
  set time time + 1
  set number_of_active_agents 0
  ask turtles [cultural-interaction]                               ;; asking agents to interact locally in asyncronous-random updating
  count-cultures                                                   ;; counting the amount of different cultures
  do-plots                                                         ;; plotting for visualization
  if number_of_active_agents = 0 [stop]                            ;; stopping when there are no active agents (when each agent
                                                                   ;;    has full or null overlap with each of its neighbors
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; LOCAL PROCEDURES ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;
;; agents look for a neighbor to interact with
;;

to cultural-interaction
  ; count the neighbors within the given radius that have a number of common traits in ]0, F[
  let number_of_possible_neighbors count other turtles in-radius radius with [(0 < overlap_between self myself ) and (overlap_between self myself < F)]
  ; if there is one or more such neighbors,
  if number_of_possible_neighbors > 0 [
    ; increase of 1 the number of active agents and
    set number_of_active_agents number_of_active_agents + 1
    ; select a neighbor within the radius
    let neighbor_turtle one-of other turtles in-radius radius
    ; and make it interact with the target agent
    let target_turtle self
    culturally_interacting target_turtle neighbor_turtle
  ]
end 

;;
;; reporting overlap between two agents (range from 0 to F)
;;

to-report overlap_between [target_turtle neighbor_turtle]
  let suma 0                                                         ;; Initialize to 0 a temporarily variable suma, then
  (foreach [culture] of target_turtle [culture] of neighbor_turtle   ;; for each element of the cultures of target and neighbor,
    [ [a b] -> if a = b [ set suma suma + 1]  ]                      ;; compare the traits and, if they are equal, add 1 to suma
    )
  report suma
end 

;;
;; interaction between a target agent and its selected neighbor
;;

to culturally_interacting [target_turtle neighbor_turtle]
  let overlap overlap_between target_turtle neighbor_turtle                       ;; Calculate the overlap between target and neighbor.
  if (0 < overlap and overlap < F ) [                                             ;; If the overlap is in ]0, F[,
    let prob_interaction (overlap / F)                                            ;; call overlap/F the probability of interaction, then,
    if random-float 1.0 < prob_interaction [                                      ;; according to this probability,
      let trait random F                                                          ;; select randomly a cultural feature to inspect
      let trait_selected? false
      while [not trait_selected?] [
        ifelse (item trait [culture] of target_turtle = item trait [culture] of neighbor_turtle)   ;; if that cultural feature has the same trait for both agents
        [
          set trait ((trait + 1) mod F)                                           ;; pass to the adjacent cultural feature
        ]
        [
          set trait_selected? true                                                ;; otherwise
        ]
      ]
      let new_cultural_value (item trait [culture] of neighbor_turtle)            ;; save the trait for that cultural feature of the neighbor
      set culture replace-item trait culture new_cultural_value                   ;; and replace the original cultural feature in the target agent with the neighbor’s trait
      setup-agent-culture-color                                                   ;; update the target agent's color according to the new culture
    ]
  ]
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; COMPONENT EXPLORATION ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;
;; Find all agents reachable from this node (it is a recursive procedure)
;;

to explore ;; turtle procedure
  if explored? [ stop ]
  set explored? true
  set component-size component-size + 1
  ask link-neighbors [ explore ]
end 

;;
;; an agent creates a link with all its neighbors with the same culture
;;

to creates-links-with-same-cultural-neighbors-in-neighborhood-of-radio-radius
  let neighborhood other turtles in-radius radius
  ask neighborhood [
    if overlap_between self myself = F                              ;; if they have the same cultures
    [
      let color_for_the_link color
      create-link-with myself [set color color_for_the_link]        ;; create a link
    ]
  ]
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; GLOBAL EXPLORATION ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;
;; count the number of different cultures in the system
;;

to count-cultures
  let list_of_cultures []                                          ;; Initialize an empty list to contain the different cultures
  ask turtles [                                                    ;; All agents, in random order, are asked to
    set list_of_cultures lput culture list_of_cultures             ;; add their vector of culture to the list of cultures.
    ]
  set list_of_cultures remove-duplicates list_of_cultures          ;; Remove the duplicates from the resulting list
  set number_of_cultures length list_of_cultures                   ;; The number of different cultures is the length of the list
end 

;;
;; counting the number of agents in the biggest cultural region
;;

to count-turtles-on-biggest-region
  ; first it is linked all agents of the same culture (each agent looks for a neighbor which is in its neighborhood (agent inside in radius)
  ask turtles [
    creates-links-with-same-cultural-neighbors-in-neighborhood-of-radio-radius
  ]
  find-all-components                                                  ;; exploring each connected network finding and counting agents of the same culture
end 

;;
;; finding all the connected components in the network and their sizes
;;

to find-all-components
  set number_of_cultural_regions 0                             ;; Initialize to 0 the number of cultural regions
  ask turtles [ set explored? false]                           ;; All the agents, until all get explored, are asked to
  loop
  [
    let starting_turtle one-of turtles with [ not explored? ]  ;; find a starting agent that has not been yet explored
    if starting_turtle = nobody [ stop ]                       ;; (if no agents are left, the loop stops)
    set component-size 0                                       ;; Initialize to 0 the component size
    ask starting_turtle [                                      ;; Ask the starting agent to
      explore                                                  ;; Count its similar neighbors (recursive procedure
                                                               ;; in which the component-size counter is updated)
      set number_of_cultural_regions number_of_cultural_regions + 1   ;; Once the explore procedure ends, increase the number of cultural regions
    ]
    if component-size > giant-component-size [                 ;; If the component explored is bigger than the giant component,
      set giant-component-size component-size                  ;; call its dimension the giant-component-size
    ]
  ]
end 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; GRAPHS ;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

to do-plots
  ;setting the plot of Cultures
  set-current-plot "Graph"
  set-current-plot-pen "Number of cultures"
  plotxy time (number_of_cultures / q ^ F)
end 

There is only one version of this model, created over 2 years ago by Eleonora Barelli.

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