Continuous opinions and discrete actions in social networks: a multi-agent system approach
This work advances understanding of opinion dynamics in social networks by modeling discrete actions, relevant for researchers studying consensus and polarization.
The paper proposes a multi-agent opinion dynamics model where agents observe quantized actions of neighbors, producing behaviors like clustering and oscillations. It characterizes action preservation and diffusion under general topologies and provides complete analysis for complete and ring graphs.
This paper proposes and analyzes a novel multi-agent opinion dynamics model in which agents have access to actions which are quantized version of the opinions of their neighbors. The model produces different behaviors observed in social networks such as disensus, clustering, oscillations, opinion propagation, even when the communication network is connected. The main results of the paper provides the characterization of preservation and diffusion of actions under general communication topologies. A complete analysis allowing the opinion forecasting is given in the particular cases of complete and ring communication graphs. Numerical examples illustrate the main features of this model.