Hysteresis and disorder-induced order in continuous kinetic-like opinion dynamics in complex networks

Abstract

In this work we tackle a kinetic-like model of opinions dynamics in a networked population endued with a quenched plurality and polarization. Additionally, we consider pairwise interactions that are restrictive, which is modeled with a smooth bounded confidence. Our results show the interesting emergence of nonequilibrium hysteresis and heterogeneity-assisted ordering. Such counterintuitive phenomena are robust to different types of network architectures such as random, small-world and scale-free.