The emergence of consensus: A primer

115Citations
Citations of this article
179Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The origin of population-scale coordination has puzzled philosophers and scientists for centuries. Recently, game theory, evolutionary approaches and complex systems science have provided quantitative insights on the mechanisms of social consensus. However, the literature is vast and widely scattered across fields, making it hard for the single researcher to navigate it. This short review aims to provide a compact overview of the main dimensions over which the debate has unfolded and to discuss some representative examples. It focuses on those situations in which consensus emerges ‘spontaneously’ in the absence of centralized institutions and covers topics that include the macroscopic consequences of the different microscopic rules of behavioural contagion, the role of social networks and the mechanisms that prevent the formation of a consensus or alter it after it has emerged. Special attention is devoted to the recent wave of experiments on the emergence of consensus in social systems.

References Powered by Scopus

Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks

34515Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Emergence of scaling in random networks

29074Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The structure and function of complex networks

14423Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

The COVID-19 social media infodemic

1129Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Networks beyond pairwise interactions: Structure and dynamics

933Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The echo chamber effect on social media

924Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Baronchelli, A. (2018, February 1). The emergence of consensus: A primer. Royal Society Open Science. Royal Society Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.172189

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 65

50%

Researcher 36

27%

Professor / Associate Prof. 22

17%

Lecturer / Post doc 8

6%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Physics and Astronomy 26

31%

Computer Science 22

27%

Engineering 18

22%

Social Sciences 17

20%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Mentions
References: 2

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free