Most of the conventional models for opinion dynamics mainly account for a fully local influence, where myopic agents decide their actions after they interact with other agents that are adjacent to them. For example, in the case of social interactions, this includes family, friends, and other immediate strong social ties. The model proposed in this paper embodies a global influence as well where by global we mean that each node also observes a sample of the average behavior of the entire population; e.g., in the social example, people observe other people on the streets, subway, and other social venues. We consider the case where nodes have dichotomous states; examples of applications include elections with two major parties, whether or not to adopt a new technology or product, and any yes no opinion such as in voting on a referendum. The dynamics of states on a network with arbitrary degree distribution are studied. For a given initial condition, we find the probability to reach consensus on each state and the expected time reach to consensus. To model mass media, the effect of an exogenous bias on the average orientation of the system is investigated. To do so, we add an external field to the model that favors one of the states over the other. This field interferes with the regular decision process of each node and creates a constant probability to lean towards one of the states. We solve for the average state of the system as a function of time for given initial conditions. Then anti-conformists (stubborn nodes who never revise their states) are added to the network, in an effort to circumvent the external bias. We find necessary conditions on the number of these defiant nodes required to cancel the effect of the external bias. Our analysis is based on a mean field approximation of the agent opinions.
There is a growing literature on opinion dynamics and related models, and we review the most relevant related work here. Different opinion dynamics models have different interaction processes and different updating schemes, which are contingent on the specificities of the problem. For example, one can choose random blocks of adjacent nodes who enforce their opinion on neighbors under certain conditions @cite_48 @cite_6 @cite_51 . In the so-called , at each timestep a randomly chosen node copies the state of a randomly chosen neighbor @cite_39 @cite_19 @cite_3 @cite_58 @cite_10 @cite_47 @cite_13 . Conversely, in the , the randomly chosen node imposes its state on a randomly chosen neighbor @cite_49 .
@cite_13 @cite_48 @cite_10 @cite_6 @cite_39 @cite_3 @cite_19 @cite_49 @cite_47 @cite_58 @cite_51
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We introduce a statistical-physics model for opinion dynamics on random networks where agents adopt the opinion held by the majority of their direct neighbors only if the fraction of these neighbors exceeds a certain threshold, p(u). We find a transition from total final consensus to a mixed phase where opinions coexist amongst the agents. The relevant parameters are the relative sizes in the initial opinion distribution within the population and the connectivity of the underlying network. As the order parameter we de. ne the asymptotic state of opinions. In the phase diagram we find regions of total consensus and a mixed phase. As the "laggard parameter" pu increases the regions of consensus shrink. In addition we introduce rewiring of the underlying network during the opinion formation process and discuss the resulting consequences in the phase diagram. Copyright (c) EPLA, 2008. This article is concerned with a general class of stochastic spatial models for the dynamics of opinions. Like in the voter model, individuals are located on the vertex set of a connected graph and update their opinion at a constant rate based on the opinion of their neighbors. However, unlike in the voter model, the set of opinions is represented by the set of vertices of another connected graph that we call the opinion graph: when an individual interacts with a neighbor, she imitates this neighbor if and only if the distance between their opinions, defined as the graph distance induced by the opinion graph, does not exceed a certain confidence threshold. When the confidence threshold is at least equal to the radius of the opinion graph, we prove that the one-dimensional process fluctuates and clusters and give a universal lower bound for the probability of consensus of the process on finite connected graphs. We also establish a general sufficient condition for fixation of the infinite system based on the structure of the opinion graph, which we then significantly improve for opinion graphs which are distance-regular. Our general results are used to understand the dynamics of the system for various examples of opinion graphs: paths and stars, which are not distance-regular, and cycles, hypercubes and the five Platonic solids, which are distance-regular. We consider the following distributed consensus problem: Each node in a complete communication network of size n initially holds an opinion, which is chosen arbitrarily from a finite set Σ. The system must converge toward a consensus state in which all, or almost all nodes, hold the same opinion. Moreover, this opinion should be valid, i.e., it should be one among those initially present in the system. This condition should be met even in the presence of a malicious adversary who can modify the opinions of a bounded subset of nodes, adaptively chosen in every round. We consider the 3-majority dynamics: At every round, every node pulls the opinion from three random neighbors and sets his new opinion to the majority one (ties are broken arbitrarily). Let k be the number of valid opinions. We show that, if k ≤ nα, where α is a suitable positive constant, the 3-majority dynamics converges in time polynomial in k and log n with high probability even in the presence of an adversary who can affect up to o([EQUATION]) nodes at each round. Previously, the convergence of the 3-majority protocol was known for |Σ| = 2 only, with an argument that is robust to adversarial errors. On the other hand, no anonymous, uniform-gossip protocol that is robust to adversarial errors was known for |Σ| > 2. In the model for continuous opinion dynamics introduced by Hegselmann and Krause, each individual moves to the average opinion of all individuals within an area of confidence. In this work we study the effects of noise in this system. With certain probability, individuals are given the opportunity to change spontaneously their opinion to another one selected randomly inside the opinion space with different rules. If the random jump does not occur, individuals interact through the Hegselmann-Krause’s rule. We analyze two cases, one where individuals can carry out opinion random jumps inside the whole opinion space, and other where they are allowed to perform jumps just inside a small interval centered around the current opinion. We found that these opinion random jumps change the model behavior inducing interesting phenomena. Using pattern formation techniques, we obtain approximate analytical results for critical conditions of opinion cluster formation. Finally, we compare the results of this work with the noisy version of the model [G. Deffuant, D. Neu, F. Amblard, G. Weisbuch, Adv. Compl. Syst. 3, 87 (2000)] for continuous-opinion dynamics. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013