DYNAMICAL EMERGENCE OF CONTRARIANS IN A 2D LOTKA-VOLTERRA LIKE LATTICE

Abstract

We analyze a Lotka-Volterra-like social lattice of agents interacting among themselves in collaborative or competitive scenarios. Dynamic characteristics of the model are derived, equilibrium points of the system are found. For the nearest neighbor interaction structure case, which depends on a γ1 parameter, also bifurcations are explored allowing us to understand how different levels of collaboration or competition leads the system to different configurations. We found that, within the range -α/4 < γ1 < α/4 the system tend to an uniform configuration, and when competition becomes aggressive, γ1 > α/4, agents tend to polarized opinions and contrarians agents appear naturally. Higher neighbor structures have been also simulated, for which contrarian patterns also emerge dynamically. In all cases the initial conditions of the lattice are randomly taken. Hung and conflictive scenarios are discussed.