spinson

English

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.^[1]

Noun

spinson (plural spinsons)

(sociophysics) 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").
- 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 evolution of a spinson’s opinion is governed by two different processes: (i) independence and (ii) social and mass-media influence.
- 2018, Pawel Sobkowicz, “Opinion Dynamics Model Based on Cognitive Biases of Complex Agents”, in Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, volume 21, →DOI:
  The model proposed in this work belongs to the ‘rich feature agent’ or ‘complex agent’ categories, in contrast to the simplified ‘spinson’ models.
- 2021, Jamil Civitarese, “External fields, independence, and disorder in q-voter models”, in Physical Review E, volume 103, number 1, →DOI:
  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 $\epsilon$ .

References

^ Piotr Nyczka · Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron (2013) “Anticonformity or Independence?—Insights from Statistical Physics”, in Journal of Statistical Physics, volume 151, →DOI, page 175:
In the simplest possible case an agent is characterized by a single variable that takes only one of two values (usually +1, −1). […] Analogous type of a variable has been introduced^[sic] in 1920 by Wilhelm Lenz to describe a phase transition in a magnetic system and therefore this type of an agent is often called a spin, at least by physicists. […] From the social point of view we deal with a person that has one of two possible opinions, attitudes etc. (e.g. ‘yes’ or ‘no’, ‘in favor’ or ‘against’, Mac or PC user). […] [F]rom now on we call this type of an agent [a] spinson—as a combination of two words spin and person. [A s]pinson should be understood as a type of an agent in ABM that is characterized by only one binary trait […]

Anagrams

Pinsons, spinons

[1] Piotr Nyczka · Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron (2013) “Anticonformity or Independence?—Insights from Statistical Physics”, in Journal of Statistical Physics, volume 151, →DOI, page 175:
In the simplest possible case an agent is characterized by a single variable that takes only one of two values (usually +1, −1). […] Analogous type of a variable has been introduced^[sic] in 1920 by Wilhelm Lenz to describe a phase transition in a magnetic system and therefore this type of an agent is often called a spin, at least by physicists. […] From the social point of view we deal with a person that has one of two possible opinions, attitudes etc. (e.g. ‘yes’ or ‘no’, ‘in favor’ or ‘against’, Mac or PC user). […] [F]rom now on we call this type of an agent [a] spinson—as a combination of two words spin and person. [A s]pinson should be understood as a type of an agent in ABM that is characterized by only one binary trait […]

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