On the Extension of Schelling’s Segregation Model

Abstract

Schelling’s social segregation model has been extensively studied over the years. A major implication of the model is that individual preferences of similarity lead to a collective segregation behavior. Schelling used Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) with uni-dimensional agents. In reality, people are multidimensional. This raises the question of whether multi-dimensionality can boost stability or reduce segregation in society. In this paper, we first adopt ABM to reconstruct Schelling’s original model and discuss its convergence behaviors under different threshold levels. Then, we extend Schelling’s model with multidimensional agents and investigate convergence behaviors of the model. Results suggest that if agents have high levels of demand for identical neighbors, the society might become less stable or even chaotic. Also, several experiments suggest that multidimensional agents are able to form a stable society that is not segregated, if agents prefer to stay adjacent to not only "identical" but also "similar" neighbors.