Abstract
The flourishing of fake news is favored by recommendation algorithms of online social networks which, based on previous users activity, provide content adapted to their preferences and so create filter bubbles. We introduce an analytically tractable voter model with personalized information, in which an external field tends to align the agent opinion with the one she held more frequently in the past. Our model shows a surprisingly rich dynamics despite its simplicity. An analytical mean-field approach, confirmed by numerical simulations, allows us to build a phase diagram and to predict if and how consensus is reached. Remarkably, polarization can be avoided only for weak interaction with the personalized information and if the number of agents is below a threshold. We analytically compute this critical size, which depends on the interaction probability in a strongly non linear way.
Highlights
The way that our opinions are formed and change over time, giving rise to emerging collective phenomena, is a topic that has attracted rapidly increasing interest
Traditional models for opinion dynamics focus on the interaction among a large number of peers, often in the presence of external fields—possibly varying over time but equal for all agents [6]—describing the effect of conventional media, such as television and the press, acting in the same way on all individuals
We consider arguably the simplest possible type of opinion dynamics, namely the voter model, and we study in detail its behavior in the presence of external personalized information, modeled, in its turn, in an extremely simple way
Summary
The way that our opinions are formed and change over time, giving rise to emerging collective phenomena, is a topic that has attracted rapidly increasing interest. Activity, and based on it, they propose personalized “information,” which varies over time and from person to person Examples of this phenomenon are posts appearing on Facebook’s news feed, which are chosen and ordered by the social network on the basis of previous interactions with other posts, or Google’s Personalized PageRank. It is crucial to properly understand the effect of personalized information or advertising on the dynamics of opinions. We consider arguably the simplest possible type of opinion dynamics, namely the voter model, and we study in detail its behavior in the presence of external personalized information, modeled, in its turn, in an extremely simple way.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
