Social balance

Social balance theory was proposed by Heider in 1958 as a simple system for describing the way our environment is perceived by us. He says a person's environment is made up of entities (people, ideas and events), and relations between these entities. Balance theory deals with three kinds of entities. The person (P) whose subjective environment we are concerned with, another person (O); and the object (X), which may be a third person.

Each of the three relations, P-O, P-X and O-X, can have one of two values. You can either 'like' (+) or 'dislike' (-). With three sets of possible relationships, each taking on one of two values (+/-) eight possible states of affairs exists.

The theory tries to capture the popular

The friend of my friend is my friend, the friend of my enemy is my enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the enemy of my friend is my enemy Heider (1946)

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Code in Java

See also "Social Balance Theory: Revisiting Heider’s Balance Theory for many agents"