Diversity-induced resonance in a model for opinion formation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how diversity in individual preferences enhances collective response to external influences in opinion formation, revealing a resonance phenomenon where moderate diversity optimizes influence uptake.

Contribution

It introduces a model demonstrating diversity-induced resonance in opinion dynamics, supported by simulations and analytical theory, highlighting the role of preference diversity in social influence.

Findings

Optimal diversity enhances external influence response

Resonance occurs at intermediate diversity levels

Model aligns with mean-field analytical predictions

Abstract

We study an opinion formation model that takes into account that individuals have diverse preferences when forming their opinion regarding a particular issue. We show that the system exhibits a phenomenon called "diversity-induced resonance"[Tessone et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 194101 (2006)], by which an external influence (for example advertising, or fashion trends) is better followed by populations having the right degree of diversity in their preferences, rather than others where the individuals are identical or have too different preferences. We support our findings by numerical simulations of the model and a mean-field type analytical theory.