Home▸Society & Economics▸The Daley-Kendall Model: The Mathematics of Gossip

🗣️ The Daley-Kendall Model: The Mathematics of Gossip

Interactive 3D population of ignorant, spreader and stifler agents where adjusting contact rate shows a rumor spreading and dying out according to the Daley-Kendall epidemic-style model.

Society & Economics3DModerate60 FPS

A 3D crowd of agents shows a rumor spreading through a population: ignorants who haven't heard it, spreaders actively telling others, and stiflers who know it but have stopped repeating it.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Spreaders convert ignorants into new spreaders at rate α, but turn into stiflers at rate β whenever they contact someone who already knows — so a rumor can burn out from the inside even while ignorants remain.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust population size, contact rate α and stifling rate β, then watch the crowd's colors shift from blue (ignorant) through orange (spreader) to grey (stifler) as the rumor rises and fades.

💡 Did You Know?

Daley and Kendall's 1964 model shows a rumor almost never reaches everyone — typically a fixed "final size" fraction stays forever ignorant, no matter how long you wait.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D population of ignorant, spreader and stifler agents where adjusting contact rate shows a rumor spreading and dying out according to the Daley-Kendall epidemic-style model.

rumor-spreadingdaley-kendall-modelepidemic-modelingagent-based-modelingsocial-dynamicssociety

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install