Schelling’s Segregation Model

Mild preferences, strong patterns

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Agents move if fewer than a fraction t of their neighbours match them.
• Even t = 30% produces about 74% segregation from a random start.
• Mild individual preferences can produce strong collective patterns.

Steps

1. Coins on a chessboard
2. How many like me?
3. Predict the city
4. Run the city
5. A tipping point
6. What can you conclude?