An Adaptive Network Model to Simulate Consensus Formation Driven by Social Identity Recognition

Figure 2

Formation of social identity. (a) The self-categorization process. Everyone can be subordinated to one or more social groups according to different attributes. Also, each group has the same attribute. At the same time, to distinguish the subordinate groups from other groups, an individual’s cognition of the in-group similarity will continue to increase, and the out-group differences will continue to expand, thus forming obvious attributes and behavioral characteristics belonging to a certain group. (b) The social comparison process. It focuses on establishing positive heterogeneity for one’s group. Positive heterogeneity is a precondition for the formation of social identity.