Dictionary

spinson en · NOUN

Etymology

Blend of spin (“property of a subatomic particle”) + person. Based on the idea that a person's opinion can be likened to the up or down spin of a quark. Coined by Piotr Nyczka and Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron in 2013.

Meanings

1. An agent in an agent-based model representing a person who holds one of two opposite opinions on a topic (for example, "for" or "against").
   • The evolution of a spinson’s opinion is governed by two different processes: (i) independence and (ii) social and mass-media influence. 2018, Tomasz Weron, Anna Kowalska-Pyzalska, Rafał Weron, “The role of educational trainings in the diffusion of smart metering platforms: An agent-based modeling approach”, in Physica A, volume 505, →DOI, page 594:
   • The initial version of the q-voter has N spinsons connected on a complete graph. Among this initial population of spinsons, a q-sized committee is picked at random to influence another randomly selected spinson called a voter. If the committee is homogeneous, then the voter assumes the same value as the spinsons from the lobby; otherwise, it changes its opinion with probability #92;epsilon. 2021, Jamil Civitarese, “External fields, independence, and disorder in q-voter models”, in Physical Review E, volume 103, number 1, →DOI:
   • The model proposed in this work belongs to the ‘rich feature agent’ or ‘complex agent’ categories, in contrast to the simplified ‘spinson’ models. 2018, Pawel Sobkowicz, “Opinion Dynamics Model Based on Cognitive Biases of Complex Agents”, in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, volume 21, →DOI:

Forms