dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaHow does Europe Make Its Mind Up? Connections, cliques, and compatibility between countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
| Authors | Daniel Fenn, Omer Suleman, Janet Efstathiou, Neil F. Johnson |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0505071 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505071 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.physa.2005.06.051 |
Abstract
We investigate the complex relationships between countries in the Eurovision Song Contest, by recasting past voting data in terms of a dynamical network. Despite the British tendency to feel distant from Europe, our analysis shows that the U.K. is remarkably compatible, or 'in tune', with other European countries. Equally surprising is our finding that some other core countries, most notably France, are significantly 'out of tune' with the rest of Europe. In addition, our analysis enables us to confirm a widely-held belief that there are unofficial cliques of countries -- however these cliques are not always the expected ones, nor can their existence be explained solely on the grounds of geographical proximity. The complexity in this system emerges via the group 'self-assessment' process, and in the absence of any central controller. One might therefore speculate that such complexity is representative of many real-world situations in which groups of 'agents' establish their own inter-relationships and hence ultimately decide their own fate. Possible examples include groups of individuals, societies, political groups or even governments.
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"abstract": "We investigate the complex relationships between countries in the Eurovision\nSong Contest, by recasting past voting data in terms of a dynamical network.\nDespite the British tendency to feel distant from Europe, our analysis shows\nthat the U.K. is remarkably compatible, or \u0027in tune\u0027, with other European\ncountries. Equally surprising is our finding that some other core countries,\nmost notably France, are significantly \u0027out of tune\u0027 with the rest of Europe.\nIn addition, our analysis enables us to confirm a widely-held belief that there\nare unofficial cliques of countries -- however these cliques are not always the\nexpected ones, nor can their existence be explained solely on the grounds of\ngeographical proximity. The complexity in this system emerges via the group\n\u0027self-assessment\u0027 process, and in the absence of any central controller. One\nmight therefore speculate that such complexity is representative of many\nreal-world situations in which groups of \u0027agents\u0027 establish their own\ninter-relationships and hence ultimately decide their own fate. Possible\nexamples include groups of individuals, societies, political groups or even\ngovernments.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0505071",
"authors": [
"Daniel Fenn",
"Omer Suleman",
"Janet Efstathiou",
"Neil F. Johnson"
],
"categories": [
"physics.soc-ph",
"physics.pop-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1016/j.physa.2005.06.051",
"title": "How does Europe Make Its Mind Up? Connections, cliques, and compatibility between countries in the Eurovision Song Contest",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505071"
},
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