Opinion dynamics in systems of interacting agents: polarization vs consensus
Channel: Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (IFISC)
Date: 02/10/2019

- By: Federico Vázquez 
- Affiliation: Universidad de Buenos Aires - CONICET 
- Date: 2019-10-02T12:30:00+00:00

 We investigate the phenomenon of public opinion polarization by means&amp;nbsp;of agent based models.&amp;nbsp; Each agent has an opinion orientation on a&amp;nbsp;given issue (in favor vs against) that is updated when interacting with other agents.&amp;nbsp; The aim of this study is to explore different&amp;nbsp;mechanisms of social interaction, such as persuasion and social&amp;nbsp;pressure, which may induce a state of polarization in the population that&amp;nbsp;is characterized by the development of two groups with antagonistic opinions.&amp;nbsp; Starting from a uniform distribution of opinions on a given&amp;nbsp;spectrum, we find that the system may reach three possible different states: a centralized state where most agents have moderate opinions, a polarized state in which agents adopt extreme and opposite opinions,&amp;nbsp;and a consensus state where all agents share the same opinion.
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