TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Influence of Competing Groups and Leaders in Opinion Dynamics
AU - Glass, Catherine
AU - Glass, David H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/9/19
Y1 - 2020/9/19
N2 - This paper explores the influence 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 influence. 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, effect 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 findings can be interpreted in terms of opinion leaders, truth, and campaigns.
AB - This paper explores the influence 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 influence. 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, effect 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 findings can be interpreted in terms of opinion leaders, truth, and campaigns.
KW - Stubborn agents
KW - Competing groups
KW - Hegselmann–Krause model
KW - Opinion dynamics
KW - Opinion leader
UR - https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/social-influence-of-competing-groups-and-leaders-in-opinion-dynam
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091186799&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10614-020-10049-7
DO - 10.1007/s10614-020-10049-7
M3 - Article
SP - 1
EP - 25
JO - Computational Economics
JF - Computational Economics
SN - 0927-7099
ER -