An Agent-Based Model of Opinion Polarization Driven by Emotions

Abstract

We provide an agent-based model to explain the emergence of collective opinions not based on feedback between different opinions, but based on emotional interactions between agents. The driving variable is the emotional state of agents, characterized by their valence, quantifying the emotion from unpleasant to pleasant, and their arousal, quantifying the degree of activity associated with the emotion. Both determine their emotional expression, from which collective emotional information is generated. This information feeds back on the dynamics of emotional states and individual opinions in a nonlinear manner. We derive the critical conditions for emotional interactions to obtain either consensus or polarization of opinions. Stochastic agent-based simulations and formal analyses of the model explain our results. Possible ways to validate the model are discussed.

Enhanced or distorted wisdom of crowds? An agent-based model of opinion formation under social influence

“…While Brownian particles are physical entities moving in physical space, this idea can be used to describe the stochastic dynamics of agents in any (virtual) space. It has been developed into a modeling framework of Brownian agents (Schweitzer 2003) with applications in various areas, from active matter (Schweitzer 2019) to emotional influence (Schweitzer et al 2020).…”

“…Such models, while more complex, already allow to capture relations in real-world surveys. They can be further enhanced by including the affective response of individuals and emotional influences (Schweitzer et al 2020;Schweighofer et al 2020a), in addition to social ones.…”

Whither Now, Opinion Modelers?

“…The model has allowed to predict, through fully abstract model, the results of Polish Parliamentary elections of 2015 with 3% accuracy [97]. The interest in modeling the role of emotions in various opinion dynamics contexts is very promising [98][99][100][101].…”

General Features of the q-XY Opinion Model

“…So the model should incorporates the energy of the system according to [4], say the interests, the satisfaction, or the unhappiness as driven motor for an opinion process. The Hamiltonian of the system is used to describe the dissatisfaction, the temperature encompasses all disturbing effects except opinion ones and the exterior field represent the intensity of the issue under discussion, in accordance with idea presented in [4], and likewise other similar consideration [16][17][18] or general agent-based opinion modelling. In our model, the x-axis is taken along the exterior field F whereas y-direction represents the "no-interests in F" state [19,20].…”