Quantum Simulations of Opinion Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces quantum models for opinion dynamics that leverage quantum phenomena to simulate consensus formation, enabling exact solutions and practical implementation on current quantum hardware, thus opening new avenues for social system modeling.

Contribution

The work presents a novel quantum framework for opinion dynamics that is exactly solvable and implementable on existing quantum devices, advancing quantum social modeling.

Findings

Quantum models accurately simulate opinion evolution.

Practical quantum circuits validated on IBM Quantum devices.

Quantum approach captures key features of consensus formation.

Abstract

Consensus formation is a central problem in collective behavior. In this work, we develop quantum models of opinion dynamics that can be exactly solved and implemented on current quantum hardware. By exploiting quantum superposition, measurement-induced state collapse, and entanglement, our framework captures key features of opinion evolution and allows a systematic investigation of how network connectivity shapes consensus formation. We demonstrate our approach using practical quantum circuits and validate representative cases on IBM Quantum devices for the open-chain. These findings pave the way for further exploration into quantum-enhanced social modeling, highlighting the potential of near-term quantum computers for simulating collective behavior in complex systems.