Mass media and heterogeneous bounds of confidence in continuous opinion dynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how external mass media influences continuous opinion dynamics with heterogeneous confidence bounds, revealing optimal persuasion at intermediate heterogeneity and counter-intuitive effects at high media intensity.

Contribution

It introduces modifications to existing models to include heterogeneous confidence levels and external mass media, analyzing their combined effects on opinion consensus.

Findings

Diversity of confidence bounds can enhance consensus.

Optimal persuasion occurs at intermediate heterogeneity levels.

Excessive media intensity can reduce persuasion effectiveness.

Abstract

This work focus on the effects of an external mass media on continuous opinion dynamics with heterogeneous bounds of confidence. We modified the original Deffuant et al. and Hegselmann and Krause models to incorporate both, an external mass media and a heterogeneous distribution of confidence levels. We analysed two cases, one where only two bounds of confidence are taken into account, and other were each individual of the system has her/his own characteristic level of confidence. We found that, in the absence of mass media, diversity of bounds of confidence can improve the capacity of the systems to reach consensus. We show that the persuasion capacity of the external message is optimal for intermediate levels of heterogeneity. Our simulations also show the existence, for certain parameter values, of a counter-intuitive effect in which the persuasion capacity of the mass media decreases if the mass media intensity is too large. We discuss similarities and differences between the two heterogeneous versions of these continuous opinion dynamic models under the influence of mass media.