 In the course of approximately 80,000 iterations, Axelrod’s model produces large areas in which cultural features are identical: local convergence. It is also true, however, that arrays such as that illustrated do not typically move to full convergence. They instead tend to produce a small number of culturally isolated stable regions—groups of identical agents none of whom share features in common with adjacent groups and so cannot further interact. As an array develops, agents interact with increasing frequency with those with whom they become increasingly similar, interacting less frequently with the dissimilar agents. With only a mechanism of local convergence, small pockets of similar agents emerge that move toward their own homogeneity and away from that of other groups. With the parameters described above, Axelrod reports a median of three stable regions at equilibrium. It is this phenomenon of global separation that Axelrod refers to as “polarization”. See the  interactive simulation of the Axelrod polarization model  in the Other Internet Resources section below.