Effect of undecided agents on an opinion-forming model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how undecided agents influence opinion dynamics in a population, showing that their proportion can significantly alter consensus formation and lead to linear effects with negative slopes.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of undecided agents' impact on opinion models, highlighting their role in changing consensus dynamics in complete networks.

Findings

10% undecided agents can significantly affect consensus

The influence of undecided agents varies linearly with a negative slope

Undecided agents' presence alters opinion formation dynamics

Abstract

The effect of undecided agents is studied within populations in an opinion-forming dynamic, varying the number of undecided agents for different proportions of populations in a complete opinion-exchange network. The result is that the dynamic depends on the number of undecided agents, with 10\% of the undecided population potentially affecting the change in consensus and then becoming linear with a negative slope.