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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 16: Social Systems, Opinion and Group Dynamics

SOE 16.8: Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 17:30–17:45, MA 001

Consensus, Polarization and Hysteresis in the Three-State Noisy q-Voter Model with Bounded Confidence — •Maciej Doniec, Arkadiusz Lipiecki, and Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron — Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

In this work, we address the question of the role of influence group size on the emergence of various collective social phenomena, such as consensus, polarization, and social hysteresis. To answer this question, we study the three-state noisy q-voter model with bounded confidence, in which agents can be in one of three states: two extremes (leftist and rightist) and centrist. We study the model on a complete graph within the mean-field approach and show that depending on the size q of the influence group, saddle-node bifurcation cascades of different length appear and different collective phenomena are possible. In particular, for all values of q>1 social hysteresis is observed. Furthermore, for small values of q ∈ (1,4) disagreement, polarization and domination of centrists (a consensus understood as the general agreement, not unanimity) can be achieved, but not domination of extremists. The latter is possible only for larger groups of influence. Finally, by comparing our model to others, we discuss how a small change in rules at the microscopic level can dramatically change the macroscopic behavior of the model.

Keywords: agent-based model; opinion dynamics; bounded confidence; voter model; consensus