Consensus Strikes Back in the Hegselmann-Krause Model of Continuous Opinion Dynamics Under Bounded Confidence

Authored by Jan Lorenz

Date Published: 2006-01

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: MATLAB

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/9/1/8/fig6.m

Abstract

The agent-based bounded confidence model of opinion dynamics of Hegselmann and Krause (2002) is reformulated as an interactive Markov chain. This abstracts from individual agents to a population model which gives a good view on the underlying attractive states of continuous opinion dynamics. We mutually analyse the agent-based model and the interactive Markov chain with a focus on the number of agents and onesided dynamics. Finally, we compute animated bifurcation diagrams that give an overview about the dynamical behavior. They show an interesting phenomenon when we lower the bound of confidence: After the first bifurcation from consensus to polarisation consensus strikes back for a while.

Tags

bounded confidence Continuous opinion dynamics Bifurcation Interactive Markov Chain Number of Agents Onesided Dynamics