How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence Model
Seeking truth is an important objective of agents in social groups. Opinion leaders in social groups may help or hinder the other agents on seeking the truth by symmetric nature. This paper studies the impact of opinion leaders by considering four characteristics of opinion leaders—reputation, stubb...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-08-01
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| Series: | Symmetry |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/8/1362 |
| _version_ | 1797558027916673024 |
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| author | Shuwei Chen David H. Glass Mark McCartney |
| author_facet | Shuwei Chen David H. Glass Mark McCartney |
| author_sort | Shuwei Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Seeking truth is an important objective of agents in social groups. Opinion leaders in social groups may help or hinder the other agents on seeking the truth by symmetric nature. This paper studies the impact of opinion leaders by considering four characteristics of opinion leaders—reputation, stubbornness, appeal, and extremeness—on the truth-seeking behavior of agents based on a bounded confidence model. Simulations show that increasing the appeal of the leader whose opinion is opposite to the truth has a straightforward impact, i.e., it normally prevents the agents from finding the truth. On the other hand, it also makes the agents who start out close to the truth move away from the truth by increasing the group bound of confidence, if there is an opinion leader opposite to the truth. The results demonstrate that the opinion of the leader is important in affecting the normal agents to reach the truth. Furthermore, for some cases, small variations of the parameters defining the agents’ characteristics can lead to large scale changes in the social group. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:24:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-aadcb9ecefb34162aece8c64267875fc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-8994 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:24:39Z |
| publishDate | 2020-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Symmetry |
| spelling | doaj.art-aadcb9ecefb34162aece8c64267875fc2023-11-20T10:13:40ZengMDPI AGSymmetry2073-89942020-08-01128136210.3390/sym12081362How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence ModelShuwei Chen0David H. Glass1Mark McCartney2School of Mathematics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, ChinaSchool of Computing, Ulster University, Newtownabbey BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland, UKSchool of Computing, Ulster University, Newtownabbey BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland, UKSeeking truth is an important objective of agents in social groups. Opinion leaders in social groups may help or hinder the other agents on seeking the truth by symmetric nature. This paper studies the impact of opinion leaders by considering four characteristics of opinion leaders—reputation, stubbornness, appeal, and extremeness—on the truth-seeking behavior of agents based on a bounded confidence model. Simulations show that increasing the appeal of the leader whose opinion is opposite to the truth has a straightforward impact, i.e., it normally prevents the agents from finding the truth. On the other hand, it also makes the agents who start out close to the truth move away from the truth by increasing the group bound of confidence, if there is an opinion leader opposite to the truth. The results demonstrate that the opinion of the leader is important in affecting the normal agents to reach the truth. Furthermore, for some cases, small variations of the parameters defining the agents’ characteristics can lead to large scale changes in the social group.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/8/1362social networkopinion dynamicsopinion leaderbounded confidence model |
| spellingShingle | Shuwei Chen David H. Glass Mark McCartney How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence Model Symmetry social network opinion dynamics opinion leader bounded confidence model |
| title | How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence Model |
| title_full | How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence Model |
| title_fullStr | How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence Model |
| title_full_unstemmed | How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence Model |
| title_short | How Opinion Leaders Affect Others on Seeking Truth in a Bounded Confidence Model |
| title_sort | how opinion leaders affect others on seeking truth in a bounded confidence model |
| topic | social network opinion dynamics opinion leader bounded confidence model |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/8/1362 |
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