Can Observing Others' Actions Help Prevent Polarization?: Results from Laboratory Experiments

Arai, Kiyomi; Asako, Yasushi; Hino, Airo; Morikawa, So

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4322971

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…There is no room to review all the proposed strategies and analyses of their effectiveness. A sample of the recent literature is given by: [ 24 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. The evidence is mixed, in that some depolarizing methods work in some environments, but fail in others.…”

Section: Social Sciences and Opinion Modeling Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Depolarization and Diversity of Opinions—Unified ABM Framework

Sobkowicz

2023

Entropy

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Most sociophysics opinion dynamics simulations assume that contacts between agents lead to greater similarity of opinions, and that there is a tendency for agents having similar opinions to group together. These mechanisms result, in many types of models, in significant polarization, understood as separation between groups of agents having conflicting opinions. The addition of inflexible agents (zealots) or mechanisms, which drive conflicting opinions even further apart, only exacerbates these polarizing processes. Using a universal mathematical framework, formulated in the language of utility functions, we present novel simulation results. They combine polarizing tendencies with mechanisms potentially favoring diverse, non-polarized environments. The simulations are aimed at answering the following question: How can non-polarized systems exist in stable configurations? The framework enables easy introduction, and study, of the effects of external “pro-diversity”, and its contribution to the utility function. Specific examples presented in this paper include an extension of the classic square geometry Ising-like model, in which agents modify their opinions, and a dynamic scale-free network system with two different mechanisms promoting local diversity, where agents modify the structure of the connecting network while keeping their opinions stable. Despite the differences between these models, they show fundamental similarities in results in terms of the existence of low temperature, stable, locally and globally diverse states, i.e., states in which agents with differing opinions remain closely linked. While these results do not answer the socially relevant question of how to combat the growing polarization observed in many modern democratic societies, they open a path towards modeling polarization diminishing activities. These, in turn, could act as guidance for implementing actual depolarization social strategies.

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Section: Social Sciences and Opinion Modeling Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Depolarization and Diversity of Opinions—Unified ABM Framework

Sobkowicz

2023

Entropy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Can Observing Others' Actions Help Prevent Polarization?: Results from Laboratory Experiments

Cited by 1 publication

References 55 publications

Social Depolarization and Diversity of Opinions—Unified ABM Framework

Social Depolarization and Diversity of Opinions—Unified ABM Framework

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