Towards a simple dynamical model of citizens’ perception

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimal dynamic two-dimensional map for the relation between citizens’ perception of quality of life (y) and their perception of the city Mayor management abilities (F). Design/methodology/approach – The authors use data from the Ciudades cómo vamos? project and test a simple hypothesis: there is a linear positive correlation between y and F. Following the authors propose a two-dimensional map based on ideas from a statistical regression model and a non-linear dynamical map on the [0; 1] interval. Findings – The authors give evidence that suggests that y and F are not linearly correlated. The authors show that the two-dimensional map, mentioned above, is able to reproduce non-trivial and unsynchronized relations between the variables, as well as the whole range of correlation coefficients. Research limitations/implications – There is a very limited amount of data to work with, therefore it was not possible to explore other possible relations thoroughly. Regarding the dynamical map, the authors are aware that there are still many venues for its study. Originality/value – To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported attempt at modeling the dynamics between two variables obtained via survey on which perception is a key component of the questions.