Social judgment theory based model on opinion formation, polarization and evolution

Abstract

The dynamical origin of opinion polarization in the real world is an interesting topic physical scientists may help to understand. To properly model the dynamics, the theory must be fully compatible with findings by social psychologists on microscopic opinion change. Here we introduce a generic model of opinion formation with homogeneous agents based on the well-known social judgment theory in social psychology by extending a similar model proposed by Jager and Amblard. The agents' opinions will eventually cluster around extreme and/or moderate opinions forming three phases in a two-dimensional parameter space that describes the microscopic opinion response of the agents. The dynamics of this model can be qualitatively understood by mean-field analysis. More importantly, first-order phase transition in opinion distribution is observed by evolving the system under a slow change in the system parameters, showing that punctuated equilibria in public opinion can occur even in a fully connected social network.

Tolerance-based interaction: a new model targeting opinion formation and diffusion in social networks

“…The previous social interaction models (Deffuant et al, 2000;Javarone & Squartini, 2014;Li et al, 2012;Chau et al, 2014;Das, Gollapudi & Munagala, 2014;Fang, Zhang & Thalmann, 2013;Li et al, 2011) do not assign nodes (i.e., individuals or social agents) the basic properties of humans, i.e., humans evolve, learn, react, and adapt in time. The reason for the simplicity behind the existing models is twofold: first, the state-of-the-art Opinion representation types where the larger nodes (labeled with S) represent stubborn agents (or opinion sources) which can also have any value for opinion, with the property that their opinion value never changes.…”

Introducing a more realistic model for opinion formation considering instability in social structure

“…In this work, the relation of two individuals is based on the similarity of current opinion vectors. Chau et al 33 have engaged the boomerang e®ect to their model. This e®ect declares that if the di®erence of two individuals' opinions is greater than a prede¯ned threshold, their opinion must be changed to move away from the presented opinion through contrast.…”

Extremism without extremists: Deffuant model with emotions

“…For this reason, Carro et al [44] devoted part of their study to the role played by nonuniform initial conditions, a topic that we shall also examine in this work. In general, the Deffuant model, despite its conceptual simplicity, provides a fertile ground for creative extensions and model variants (recent interesting works include [45][46][47]). …”