Opinion dynamics as a movement in a bistable potential

TL;DR

This paper models opinion dynamics with anticonformity as a movement in a bistable potential, revealing spontaneous reorientations and transitions between stable states on a complete graph.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical framework for understanding opinion shifts as movements in a bistable potential, incorporating anticonformity effects.

Findings

Spontaneous reorientations occur below a certain anticonformity threshold.

Opinion dynamics can be modeled as a movement in a symmetric bistable potential.

A typical waiting time for state transitions is observed.

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the model of opinion dynamics with anticonformity on a complete graph. We show that below some threshold value of anticonformal behavior spontaneous reorientations occur between two stable states. Dealing with a complete graph allows us also for analytical treatment. We show that opinion dynamics can be understood as a movement of a public opinion in a symmetric bistable effective potential. We focus also on the spontaneous transitions between stable states and show that a typical waiting time can be observed.