317 research outputs found
Truth seekers in opinion dynamics models
We modify the model of Deffuant et al. to distinguish true opinion among
others in the fashion of Hegselmann and Krause
. The basic features of both models
modified to account for truth seekers are qualitatively the same.Comment: RevTeX4, 2 pages, 1 figure in 6 eps file
The Importance of Disagreeing: Contrarians and Extremism in the CODA model
In this paper, we study the effects of introducing contrarians in a model of
Opinion Dynamics where the agents have internal continuous opinions, but
exchange information only about a binary choice that is a function of their
continuous opinion, the CODA model. We observe that the hung election scenario
still exists here, but it is weaker and it shouldn't be expected in every
election. Finally, we also show that the introduction of contrarians make the
tendency towards extremism of the original model weaker, indicating that the
existence of agents that prefer to disagree might be an important aspect and
help society to diminish extremist opinions.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Advertising, consensus, and ageing in multilayer Sznajd model
In the Sznajd consensus model on the square lattice, two people who agree in
their opinions convince their neighbours of this opinion. We generalize it to
many layers representing many age levels, and check if still a consensus among
all layers is possible. Advertising sometimes but not always produces a
consensus on the advertised opinion.Comment: 6 pages including 4 figures, for Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Monte Carlo simulations of the Ising and the Sznajd model on growing Barabasi - Albert networks
The Ising model shows on growing Barabasi - Albert networks the same
ferromagnetic behavior as on static Barabasi - Albert networks. Sznajd models
on growing Barabasi - Albert networks show an hysteresis like behavior. Nearly
a full consensus builds up and the winning opinion depends on history. On slow
growing Barabasi - Albert networks a full consensus builds up. At five opinions
in the Sznajd model with limited persuasion on growing Barabasi - Albert
networks, all odd opinions win and all even opinions loose supporters.Comment: 6 pages including 3 figures, for IJMP
About the Power to Enforce and Prevent Consensus by Manipulating Communication Rules
We explore the possibilities of enforcing and preventing consensus in
continuous opinion dynamics that result from modifications in the communication
rules. We refer to the model of Weisbuch and Deffuant, where agents adjust
their continuous opinions as a result of random pairwise encounters whenever
their opinions differ not more than a given bound of confidence \eps. A high
\eps leads to consensus, while a lower \eps leads to a fragmentation into
several opinion clusters. We drop the random encounter assumption and ask: How
small may \eps be such that consensus is still possible with a certain
communication plan for the entire group? Mathematical analysis shows that
\eps may be significantly smaller than in the random pairwise case. On the
other hand we ask: How large may \eps be such that preventing consensus is
still possible? In answering this question we prove Fortunato's simulation
result that consensus cannot be prevented for \eps>0.5 for large groups. %
Next we consider opinion dynamics under different individual strategies and
examine their power to increase the chances of consensus. One result is that
balancing agents increase chances of consensus, especially if the agents are
cautious in adapting their opinions. However, curious agents increase chances
of consensus only if those agents are not cautious in adapting their opinions.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure
Continuous Opinions and Discrete Actions in Opinion Dynamics Problems
A model where agents show discrete behavior regarding their actions, but have
continuous opinions that are updated by interacting with other agents is
presented. This new updating rule is applied to both the voter and Sznajd
models for interaction between neighbors and its consequences are discussed.
The appearance of extremists is naturally observed and it seems to be a
characteristic of this model.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, minor changes for improved clarit
Opinion dynamics and decision of vote in bipolar political systems
A model of the opinion dynamics underlying the political decision is
proposed. The analysis is restricted to a bipolar scheme with a possible third
political area. The interaction among voters is local but the final decision
strongly depends on global effects such as, for example, the rating of the
governments. As in the realistic case, the individual decision making process
is determined by the most relevant personal interests and problems. The
phenomenological analysis of the national vote in Italy and Germany has been
carried out and a prediction of the next Italian vote as a function of the
government rating is presented.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. To be published in International Journal of Modern
Physics
A dual modelling of evolving political opinion networks
We present the result of a dual modeling of opinion network. The model
complements the agent-based opinion models by attaching to the social agent
(voters) network a political opinion (party) network having its own intrinsic
mechanisms of evolution. These two sub-networks form a global network which can
be either isolated from or dependent on the external influence. Basically, the
evolution of the agent network includes link adding and deleting, the opinion
changes influenced by social validation, the political climate, the
attractivity of the parties and the interaction between them. The opinion
network is initially composed of numerous nodes representing opinions or
parties which are located on a one dimensional axis according to their
political positions. The mechanism of evolution includes union, splitting,
change of position and of attractivity, taken into account the pairwise node
interaction decaying with node distance in power law. The global evolution ends
in a stable distribution of the social agents over a quasi-stable and
fluctuating stationary number of remaining parties. Empirical study on the
lifetime distribution of numerous parties and vote results is carried out to
verify numerical results
Time dependence of the survival probability of an opinion in a closed community
The time dependence of the survival probability of an opinion in a closed
community has been investigated in accordance with social temperature by using
the Kawasaki-exchange dynamics based on previous study in Ref. [1]. It is shown
that the survival probability of opinion decays with stretched exponential law
consistent with previous static model. However, the crossover regime in the
decay of the survival probability has been observed in this dynamic model
unlike previous model. The decay characteristics of both two regimes obey to
stretched exponential.Comment: Revised version of the paper (9 page, 5 Figures). Submitted to Int.
J. Mod. Phys.
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