Emergence of moderate opinions as a consequence of group pressure

TL;DR

This paper investigates a continuous opinion dynamics model with 3-agent interactions and group pressure, revealing symmetry-breaking transitions and the impact of group pressure on opinion distribution.

Contribution

It introduces a model incorporating group pressure and stochastic interactions, analyzing phase transitions and the suppression of extremism in opinion formation.

Findings

Symmetry-breaking transitions occur at critical conviction values.

High group pressure can suppress phase transitions.

Increased group pressure broadens opinion distribution, reducing extremism.

Abstract

In this work we study a continuous opinion dynamics model considering 3-agent interactions and group pressure. Agents interact in a fully-connected population, and two parameters govern the dynamics: the agents' convictions $\lambda$, that are homogeneous in the population, and the group pressure $p$. Stochastic parameters also drive the interactions. Our analytical and numerical results indicate that the model undergoes symmetry-breaking transitions at distinct critical points $\lambda_{c}$ for any value of $p<p^{*}=2/3$, i.e., the transition can be suppressed for sufficiently high group pressure. Such transition separates two phases: for any $\lambda \leq \lambda_{c}$, the order parameter $O$ is identically null ($O=0$, a symmetric, absorbing phase), while for $\lambda>\lambda_{c}$, we have $O>0$, i.e., a symmetry-broken phase (ferromagnetic). The numerical simulations also reveal that the increase of group pressure leads to a wider distribution of opinions, decreasing the extremism in the population.