Models of Social Influence: Towards the Next Frontiers

Abstract

Abstract:In , Robert Axelrod wondered in a highly influential paper "If people tend to become more alike in their beliefs, attitudes, and behavior when they interact, why do not all such di erences eventually disappear?" Axelrod's question highlighted an ongoing quest for formal theoretical answers joined by researchers from a wide range of disciplines. Numerous models have been developed to understand why and under what conditions diversity in beliefs, attitudes and behavior can co-exist with the fact that very o en in interactions, social influence reduces di erences between people. Reviewing three prominent approaches, we discuss the theoretical ingredients that researchers added to classic models of social influence as well as their implications. Then, we propose two main frontiers for future research. First, there is urgent need for more theoretical work comparing, relating and integrating alternative models. Second, the field su ers from a strong imbalance between a proliferation of theoretical studies and a dearth of empirical work. More empirical work is needed testing and underpinning micro-level assumptions about social influence as well as macro-level predictions. In conclusion, we discuss major roadblocks that need to be overcome to achieve progress on each frontier. We also propose that a new generation of empirically-based computational social influence models can make unique contributions for understanding key societal challenges, like the possible e ects of social media on societal polarization.

Ideologically motivated biases in a multiple issues opinion model

“…The cases where the average opinions remain a little spread, while rare, correspond to scenarios where bi-partisanship survives, with agents opinions surviving at both extreme positions. This suggests that, in general, the model can be described as one with similarity biased influence [44]. This tendency to consensus seems to be a little weaker at the p * case when compared to the two other cases, p * * and p * * * .…”

Opinion Dynamics of Social-Similarity-Based Hegselmann–Krause Model

“…Everyone has different social attributes and resources and can be affected by different influences. In models with similarity-biased influence, only sufficiently similar individuals can interact with each other to reduce opinion differences, and similarity threshold depends on additional psychological mechanisms (e.g., social identity, self-confidence) [23]. Anyone can have the same social power on all the other neighbors, ignoring the interaction between two individuals.…”

Global Diversity and Local Consensus in Status Beliefs: The Role of Network Clustering and Resistance to Belief Change

“…Future research might incorporate this source of status beliefs into our model and connect models of the formation of status beliefs to the broad literature on formally modelling social influence dynamics. Drawing on research on homophily and confirmation bias (Nickerson 1998), models of "similarity-biased social influence" (Flache et al 2017) assume that influence is both stronger and more likely to occur between actors with similar characteristics (e.g., Axelrod 1997;Flache and Macy 2011a;Mark 1998Mark , 2003. This work suggests that adding social influence between actors of the same categories can be expected to strengthen tendencies towards local clustering of status beliefs.…”