When Small Differences Matter: How Small Differences Create Leaders in Flocking Swarms

We study whether leadership can arise in collectives of agents that follow identical interaction rules but differ slightly in perceptual or kinematic traits. Using a continuous-time flocking model with controlled micro-heterogeneity, we measure directional influence through a lagged-correlation network metric. Fully homogeneous groups show uniformly low influence, whereas even a small elite subset produces stronger leaders. Moderate heterogeneity amplifies leadership, while excessive heterogeneity reduces it. These results show that minimal parametric differences alone can generate emergent leaders in decentralized swarms.