Asynchronous Opinion Dynamics with Online and Offline Interactions in Bounded Confidence Model

Open Access journalNowadays, in the world, about half of the population can receive information and exchange their opinions with others in online environments (e.g. the Internet), while the other half obtain information and exchange their opinions in offline environments (e.g. face to face) (see eMarketer Report, 2016). The speed at which information is received and opinions are exchanged in online environments is much faster than in offline environments. To model this phenomenon, in this paper we consider online and offline as two subsystems in opinion dynamics, and there is asynchronization when the agents in these two subsystems update their opinions. We show that asynchronization strongly impacts the steady-state time of the opinion dynamics, the opinion clusters and the interactions between the online subsystem and offline subsystem. Furthermore, these effects are often enhanced the larger the size of the online subsystem

Consensus Reaching in Social Network Group Decision Making: Research Paradigms and Challenges

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.In social network group decision making (SNGDM), the consensus reaching process (CRP) is used to help decision makers with social relationships reach consensus. Many CRP studies have been conducted in SNGDM until now. This paper provides a review of CRPs in SNGDM, and as a result it classifies them into two paradigms: (i) the CRP paradigm based on trust relationships, and (ii) the CRP paradigm based on opinion evolution. Furthermore, identified research challenges are put forward to advance this area of research