Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics

Opinion dynamics models usually center on explaining how macro-level regularities in public opinion (uniformity, polarization or clusterization) emerge as the effect of local interactions of a population with an initial random distribution of opinions. However, with only a few exceptions, the unders...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: León Medina, Francisco José
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10256/18222
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10256/18222
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Sociologia
Sociology
Opinió pública
Public opinion
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spelling Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion DynamicsLeón Medina, Francisco JoséSociologiaSociologyOpinió públicaPublic opinionOpinion dynamics models usually center on explaining how macro-level regularities in public opinion (uniformity, polarization or clusterization) emerge as the effect of local interactions of a population with an initial random distribution of opinions. However, with only a few exceptions, the understanding of patterns of public opinion change has generally been dismissed in this literature. To address this theoretical gap in our understanding of opinion dynamics, we built a multi-agent simulation model that could help to identify some mechanisms underlying changes in public opinion. Our goal was to build a model whose behavior could show different types of endogenously (not induced by the researcher) triggered transitions (rapid or slow, radical or soft). The paper formalizes a situation where agents embedded in different types of networks (random, small world and scale free networks) interact with their neighbors and express an opinion that is the result of different mechanisms: a coherence mechanism, in which agents try to stick to their previously expressed opinions; an assessment mechanism, in which agents consider available external information on the topic; and a social influence mechanism, in which agents tend to approach their neighbor’s opinions. According to our findings, only scale-free networks show fluctuations in public opinion. Public opinion changes in this model appear as a diffusion process of individual opinion shifts that is triggered by an opinion change of a highly connected agent. The frequency, rapidity and radicalness of the diffusion, and hence of public opinion fluctuations, positively depends on how influential external information is in individual opinions and negatively depends on how homophilic social interactions areThis work has benefitedfrom two MINECO R&D&I project grants (reference number CSO2015-64740-R and FFI2017-89639-P)SimSoc Consortium2019info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionpeer-reviewedapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10256/18222http://hdl.handle.net/10256/18222Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2019, vol. 22, núm. 2, p.4Articles publicats (D-EM)reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.18564/jasss.3967info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1460-7425Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:10256/182222026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
title Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
spellingShingle Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
León Medina, Francisco José
Sociologia
Sociology
Opinió pública
Public opinion
title_short Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
title_full Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
title_fullStr Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
title_full_unstemmed Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
title_sort Endogenous Changes in Public Opinion Dynamics
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv León Medina, Francisco José
author León Medina, Francisco José
author_facet León Medina, Francisco José
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Sociologia
Sociology
Opinió pública
Public opinion
topic Sociologia
Sociology
Opinió pública
Public opinion
description Opinion dynamics models usually center on explaining how macro-level regularities in public opinion (uniformity, polarization or clusterization) emerge as the effect of local interactions of a population with an initial random distribution of opinions. However, with only a few exceptions, the understanding of patterns of public opinion change has generally been dismissed in this literature. To address this theoretical gap in our understanding of opinion dynamics, we built a multi-agent simulation model that could help to identify some mechanisms underlying changes in public opinion. Our goal was to build a model whose behavior could show different types of endogenously (not induced by the researcher) triggered transitions (rapid or slow, radical or soft). The paper formalizes a situation where agents embedded in different types of networks (random, small world and scale free networks) interact with their neighbors and express an opinion that is the result of different mechanisms: a coherence mechanism, in which agents try to stick to their previously expressed opinions; an assessment mechanism, in which agents consider available external information on the topic; and a social influence mechanism, in which agents tend to approach their neighbor’s opinions. According to our findings, only scale-free networks show fluctuations in public opinion. Public opinion changes in this model appear as a diffusion process of individual opinion shifts that is triggered by an opinion change of a highly connected agent. The frequency, rapidity and radicalness of the diffusion, and hence of public opinion fluctuations, positively depends on how influential external information is in individual opinions and negatively depends on how homophilic social interactions are
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
peer-reviewed
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10256/18222
http://hdl.handle.net/10256/18222
url http://hdl.handle.net/10256/18222
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.18564/jasss.3967
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1460-7425
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv SimSoc Consortium
publisher.none.fl_str_mv SimSoc Consortium
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2019, vol. 22, núm. 2, p.4
Articles publicats (D-EM)
reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
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