Fig 4. Impact of the internal consistency of zealot beliefs.

We define zealots as a group of individuals who share an identical, immutable belief system. Such belief systems can, however, vary in terms of their coherency. The dynamics of 〈S/N〉, the fractional size of the zealot population, over ρ_o, the density of zealots introduced into the population, reveals that zealots with more coherent beliefs can convert a population much more efficiently. In converting the whole population, the coherent set of beliefs (circles) require only less than half the density of zealots compared with incoherent beliefs (squares). Bars show standard error and E_z is the energy of the zealot’s belief-system. The simulations were run using J = 2.0, T = 2.0 and I = 90.0.