Social Influence of Competing Groups and Leaders in Opinion Dynamics
Date
2021-09-19
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Publisher
Springer
Abstract
This paper explores the infuence of two competing stubborn agent groups on the
opinion dynamics of normal agents. Computer simulations are used to investigate
the parameter space systematically in order to determine the impact of group size
and extremeness on the dynamics and identify optimal strategies for maximizing
numbers of followers and social infuence. Results show that (a) there are many
cases where a group that is neither too large nor too small and neither too extreme
nor too central achieves the best outcome, (b) stubborn groups can have a moderating, rather than polarizing, efect on the society in a range of circumstances, and (c)
small changes in parameters can lead to transitions from a state where one stubborn
group attracts all the normal agents to a state where the other group does so. We also
explore how these fndings can be interpreted in terms of opinion leaders, truth, and
campaigns
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 11 September 2020; Published online - 19 September 2020.
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Keywords
Stubborn agents, Competing groups, Hegelsmann-Krause model, Opinion dynamics, Opinion leader
Citation
Glass, C.A. and Glass, D.H. (2020) ‘Social Influence of Competing Groups and Leaders in Opinion Dynamics’, Computational Economics. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1007/s10614-020-10049-7.