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Perceptions of Complex Systems Are Governed by Power Laws

Uygar Ozesmi
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Abstract

Many networks in natural and human-made systems exhibit scale-free properties and are small worlds. Now we show that people's understanding of complex systems in their cognitive maps also follow a scale-free topology. People focus on a few attributes, relating these with many other things in the system. Many more attributes have very few connections. People use relatively short explanations to describe events; their cognitive map is a small world with less than six degrees of separation. These findings may help us to better understand people's perceptions, especially when it comes to decision-making, conflict resolution, politics and management.

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Uygar Ozesmi. 2006-01-21. Perceptions of Complex Systems Are Governed by Power Laws. https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0601033

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