Preferences and Vision

Households consider neighborhood ethnic mix (a) when they assess their satisfaction with their current residence and (b) when they assess the desirability of alternative housing options. In this version of SimSeg Lite no other factor is considered. (In other version, households may consider additional factors such as housing quality and neighborhood status level.

Neighborhood is defined based on "agent vision". This may be specified in a variety of ways described below.

  Ethnic Preferences
  Agent Vision

Ethnic Preferences

Ethnic preferences refer to households' goals to achieve specific levels of residential "contact" with "in-group" households and/or "out-group" households.

When ethnic preferences are "active" households will consider neighborhood ethnic mix when making location decisions. Otherwise, households in the group will be indifferent to available residential locations and will move to the first vacancy they encounter when they search.

In-Group Preference (IGP). Each group may be assigned an in-group preference. This specifies the minimum level of contact (e.g., 50%) members of the group wish to have with co-ethnics (i.e., other members of their group).

If this minimum is reached, the household will be satisfied with the neighborhood. If it is not reached, the household will be dissatisfied; the greater the shortfall, the greater the level of dissatisfaction.


Out-Group Preference (OGP). Each group may be assigned an out-group preference. This specifies the minimum level of contact (e.g., 30%) members of the group wish to have with others.

If this minimum is reached, the household will be satisfied with the neighborhood. If it is not reached, the household will be dissatisfied; the greater the shortfall, the greater the level of dissatisfaction.

Logical Consistency. Preferences for in-group contact and out-group contact must be logically possible. That is, the sum of the two percentages cannot exceed 100. SimSeg Lite checks this before starting a simulation experiment.

Agent Vision

This setting specifies the region households "see" when assessing the social characteristics (e.g., ethnic mix) of a neighborhood. The options include:

N1. Grid Area (25 units). Households consider neighbors who within the "bounded" area in the city's neighborhood grid the housing unit is located in.

N2. Grid Area + Adjacent Areas (225 Units). Households consider neighbors within the "bounded" area and all of the immediately adjacent bounded areas. Ethnic mix is evaluated in the bounded area. Then it is also evaluated for the adjacent areas. The two satisfaction scores are then averaged. Note, simulations using this setting produce results similiar to using large vision neighborhoods that are site-centered, but the simulations run much faster.

N3. Rook's Area (4 Units). Households consider the "Rook's" neighborhood - the four immediate neighbors above, below, left, and right on the lattice. (Also known as a "von Neuman" neighborhood.)


N4. Queen's Area (8 Units). Households consider the "Queen's" neighborhood - the eight immediate, adjacent neighbors on the lattice. (Also known as a "Moore" neighborhood.)


N5. Diamond Span 5 (12 units). Households consider the 12 neighbors who can be reached by traversing any combination of cardinal (i.e., vertical or horizontal) moves of total distance 2 or less (e.g., rignt 2, left 1 then up 1, etc.). This defines a diamond with a span of 5 units on the vertices.


N6. Circle Span 5 (20 units). Households consider the 20 neighbors within a circular region surrounding the location of interest. The circle spans 5 units at its maximum.


N7. Diamond Span 7 (24 units). Households consider the 24 neighbors who can be reached by traversing any combination of cardinal (i.e., vertical or horizontal) moves of total distance 3 or less (e.g., left 3, left 1 then up 2, etc.). This defines a diamond that spans 7 housing units across the vertices.


N8. Circle Span 7 (36 units). Households consider the 36 neighbors within a circular region surrounding the location of interest. The circle spans 7 units at its maximum.


N9. Diamond Span 9 (40 units). Households consider the 40 neighbors who can be reached by traversing any combination of cardinal (i.e., vertical or horizontal) moves of total distance 4 or less (e.g., left 4, left 1 then up 3, etc.). This defines a diamond that spans 9 housing units across the vertices.


N10. Circle Span 9 (48 units). Households consider the 48 neighbors within a circular region surrounding the location of interest. The circle spans 9 units at its maximum.


N11. Diamond Span 11 (60 units). Households consider the 60 neighbors who can be reached by traversing any combination of cardinal (i.e., vertical or horizontal) moves of total distance 5 or less (e.g., left 5, left 3 then up 2, etc.). This defines a diamond that spans 11 housing units across the vertices.