The Hipster Effect: When anticonformist all look the same.
The Hipster Effect: When anticonformist all look the same.
This is a funny story. All started when I found out that although noisy, neurons tend to get synchronized. Even more surprising: when increasing their level of noise, one may lead asynchronous neurons synchronize. To me, this is a fascinating phenomenon. And somewhat mysterious.
To demystify it, I looked for the simplest system possible that may feature that phenomenon, and by doing so, I was hoping to understand synchronization better. So let’s consider a model of interacting agents, with just two states: +1 or -1. Now, the dynamics. Each agent may switch state with an intensity that depends on the state of the majority. Each individual has thus two choices: either following the majority, or opposing it. Mainstreams, and hipsters. A few calculations later, we showed that slow hipsters synchronize, by trying to oppose to the trend. This is, in a word, the phenomenon studied in this short preprint.
It was a fun to write paper. But what was more fun, was to read all journalists and bloggers. Thank you, I had much fun reading you all! Below is a shortlist, sorry if I forgot some!
In the general press (a selection)
Washington Post: The mathematician who proved why hipsters all look alike
A great article by Jeff Guo, with new simulations, and great explanations
Huffington Post: This Is The Mathematical Reason All Hipsters Look The Same
New York Daily News: The hipster formula: Mathematician explains why ‘anticonformists all look the same’
Haaretz: עכשיו זה מדעי: להיות היפסטר זה פרדוקס
Le Soir (Belgium)
The Times (no more online)
Le Journal du Dimanche (France)
GQ Magazine (in French)
Metro Sweden: Matematisk formel förklarar varför hipsters ser likadana ut
Glamour Paris
La Libre (Belgium)
Les Inrocks
…
In the scientific press
AMS News
Science et Vie (French scientific popularization journal)
…
On TV:
BBC 2: NewsNight
Reuters international
USA Today
Blogs and online press
Vocativ: Mathematician Solves The Hipster Equation. A great article by Elizabeth Kulze – and an original one, the first appeared.
Mic: The Mathematical Reason All Hipsters Look the Same
Complex magazine
LifeBoxSet: Aquí está la prueba científica de que todos los hipsters son iguales
… and many many more …