Schelling's Segregation Model - Rules

This simulation models a version of Schelling's segregation model in a 1D circular space.

Agents and Preferences

  • There are two types of agents: Red and Blue.
  • Each agent has a tolerance level between 0.0 and 1.0.
  • An agent is considered "happy" if the proportion of similar neighbors within its neighborhood (defined by the radius w) is greater than or equal to its tolerance.
  • The neighborhood extends w agents to the left and $w$ agents to the right (considering the circular boundary). The agent itself is not counted as a neighbor.

Dynamics

  • If there are any "unhappy" Red and Blue agents, the simulation randomly selects one unhappy Red agent and one unhappy Blue agent.
  • These two unhappy agents swap their positions in the 1D space.
  • After the swap, the happiness of the neighbors around the swapped positions is re-evaluated.
  • The simulation continues with random swaps between unhappy Red and Blue agents until no unhappy agents of either color remain, or a state of total segregation (all agents of the same color are clustered together) is reached.

Parameters

  • Size: The total number of agents in the 1D space.
  • Radius: The number of neighbors to the left and right that each agent considers.
  • Tolerance: The threshold for happiness (proportion of similar neighbors).
  • Minority: The initial proportion of Red agents in the space.