Cohesion, consensus and extreme information in opinion dynamics

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a continuous opinion dynamics model incorporating disagreement and multiple information sources, revealing how initial cohesion and information extremism influence consensus or segregation in social systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel continuous model of opinion dynamics with multiple information sources and studies how initial cohesion and information extremism affect consensus formation.

Findings

Consensus depends on initial cohesion and external information.

Single mild information source can lead to consensus.

Multiple sources can induce consensus even with strong messages.

Abstract

Opinion formation is an important element of social dynamics. It has been widely studied in the last years with tools from physics, mathematics and computer science. Here, a continuous model of opinion dynamics for multiple possible choices is analysed. Its main features are the inclusion of disagreement and possibility of modulating information, both from one and multiple sources. The interest is in identifying the effect of the initial cohesion of the population, the interplay between cohesion and information extremism, and the effect of using multiple sources of information that can influence the system. Final consensus, especially with external information, depends highly on these factors, as numerical simulations show. When no information is present, consensus or segregation is determined by the initial cohesion of the population. Interestingly, when only one source of information is present, consensus can be obtained, in general, only when this is extremely mild, i.e. there is not a single opinion strongly promoted, or in the special case of a large initial cohesion and low information exposure. On the contrary, when multiple information sources are allowed, consensus can emerge with an information source even when this is not extremely mild, i.e. it carries a strong message, for a large range of initial conditions.