Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 10: Opinion Formation I

SOE 10.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 10:30–10:45, H37

A model of adaptive convergence in science — •Stefano Balietti and Dirk Helbing — Clausiusstrasse 50 8092 Zurich

How does scientific consensus of separate communities ("schools") emerge? This study brings together two areas of research, organizational learning and opinion formation models, and it is in line with the recommendations of Nicolas Payette (2011) "For an Integrated Approach to Agent- Based Modeling of Science".

A population of scientists exploring an epistemic landscape simultaneously takes into account the desire for individuality and the effects of social influence coming from related opinions. Noise is used as a driver for the formation of metastable clusters of opinions characterized by consensus within clusters, and diversity between them (Maes, Flache, and Helbing, 2010).

Our preliminary results show formation of interesting consensus patterns emerging from simple interactions of a large number of individuals in space. Clusters formed in local minima can be displaced by opinions with higher attractiveness, once discovered, and clusters that grow too large can spontaneously split into subclusters (Mulkay and Edge, 1972).