Opinion dynamics of social learning with a conflicting source
Date
2020-10-27
Authors
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Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
The way in which agents are influenced by the truth and/or a conflicting source can have
a significant effect on the extent to which social learning is successful. We investigate
these influences via several variations of the Hegselmann–Krause model of opinion
dynamics. First, we compare two ways of modelling the influence of truth in the absence
of a conflicting source and find that in a model where access to the truth is more
restricted, increasing the proportion of truth seekers in the society has little effect
on convergence to the truth. Second, we investigate the same models of truth in the
presence of a conflicting source, which could represent the opinions of a radical group,
opinion leader or media source. The results show that a consensus on the truth can be
reached in certain cases in both models, but also that in a wide range of cases both
models give rise to the same partition of the society into truth seekers and non-truth
seekers.
Description
Publication history: Published online - 27 October 2020.
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Keywords
Social learning, Hegselmann–Krause model, Opinion dynamics, Truth, Opinion leader, Stubborn agents
Citation
Glass, C.A. and Glass, D.H. (2021) ‘Opinion dynamics of social learning with a conflicting source’, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.physa.2020.125480.