Conformity, Anticonformity and Polarization of Opinions: Insights from a Mathematical Model of Opinion Dynamics

Authored by Tyll Krueger, Janusz Szwabinski, Tomasz Weron

Date Published: 2017

DOI: 10.3390/e19070371

Sponsors: Polish National Science Center

Platforms: Python

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: https://zenodo.org/record/167817#.XGMw6tXwY3g

Abstract

Understanding and quantifying polarization in social systems is important because of many reasons. It could for instance help to avoid segregation and conflicts in the society or to control polarized debates and predict their outcomes. In this paper, we present a version of the q-voter model of opinion dynamics with two types of responses to social influence: conformity (like in the original q-voter model) and anticonformity. We put the model on a social network with the double-clique topology in order to check how the interplay between those responses impacts the opinion dynamics in a population divided into two antagonistic segments. The model is analyzed analytically, numerically and by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Our results show that the system undergoes two bifurcations as the number of cross-links between cliques changes. Below the first critical point, consensus in the entire system is possible. Thus, two antagonistic cliques may share the same opinion only if they are loosely connected. Above that point, the system ends up in a polarized state.

Tags

Agent-based modeling Social influence polarization Culture Opinion dynamics networks conflict conformity Dynamical systems Internet Integration Selective exposure Kinetic-models Reinforcement Anticonformity Social response Media use