Deterministic models for opinion formation through communication: A survey

Abstract

A fundamental question in modeling opinion dynamics is to know how can opinion be formed and evolved in a social network? This is an thorny subject which has attracted a hulk of attitudes and whetted the curiosity of researchers from various disciplines. One of the major points of view rests on the fact that opinion can be formed and revised through a process called social influence. This latter lies at the heart of the opinion modeling process and it has two types: Informational social influence, where a user forms his opinion according to information he obtained from a certain number of agents in his friendship and neighborhood. normative social influence is the second type of social influence and it lead to conformity. A very few empirical studies indicate that, it is also important to consider the normative influence in the opinion modeling process. In contrary, informational Influence is one of the main underlying premises used by many well-known theoretical models of opinion dynamicsIn the literature two main approaches have been adopted on how each individual updates her opinion: deterministic and probabilistic. Here, we focus only with deterministic models. We present various forms of modeling opinion dynamics in social networks and we show how opinions change following to social influence. Within the course of analysis, we point out both the strengths and weakness of many approaches. We aim to provide theoretical insight which may serve as guidelines for scientists, practitioners, researchers, consultants and developers who intend to design new methods in this area of interest.