Impact of memory on opinion dynamics
Authored by Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron, Arkadiusz Jedrzejewski
Date Published: 2018
DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2018.03.077
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Abstract
We investigate an agent-based model of opinion dynamics with two types
of social response: conformity and independence. Conformity is
introduced to the model analogously as in the Sznajd model or q-voter
model, which means that only unanimous group exerts peer pressure on
individuals. The novelty, in relation to previous versions of the
q-voter model, is memory possessed by each agent and external noise T,
which plays the role of social temperature. Each agent has its own
memories of past experiences related to the social costs and benefits of
being independent or conformist. If an agent was awarded in past more
for being independent, it will have a greater tendency to be independent
than conformist and vice versa. We will show that depending on the
social temperature T the system spontaneously organizes into one of two
regimes. Below a certain critical social temperature T-C, all agents in
the society acquire personal traits (so called person state). Some of
them become permanent conformists and others start to behave forever
independently. This means that initially homogeneous population becomes
heterogeneous, and agents respond differently to social influence. For T
> T-C, all agents with equal probabilities behave independently or
conform to peer pressure (so called situation state). This regime change
between person and situation state, which reminds the idea of an
annealed vs. quenched disorder, affects also public opinion.
Particularly interesting results are obtained for individualistic
societies, in which public opinion is non-monotonic function of T, which
means that there is an optimal social temperature for which an agreement
in the society is the highest. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights
reserved.
Tags
Agent-based modeling
Social influence
Opinion dynamics
diffusion
Model
elections
Sznajd model
Phase-transitions
Majority-rule
Voter model
Social impact
Peak memory
End rule