Modeling Group Opinion Evolution on Online Social Networks: A Gravitational Field Perspective

Abstract

The research on group behavior is effective for establishing a good network environment since people in social networks tend to form groups spontaneously. Most studies on group behavior on online social networks assume that all individuals are reduced to one cluster, ignoring the existence of potential clusters and their importance in group opinion dynamics. This article introduces a novel group-gravitational field (GGF) model to investigate the opinion evolution based on group behavior by the following aspects: 1) the GGF model reduces a cluster in the social network into a charge and the whole network into a gravitational field; 2) the GGF model calculates the initial influence of a cluster according to the topology information and further constructs a gravity matrix of the network based on the Coulomb law; and 3) opinion-leader clusters exert the internal field force on common opinion clusters inside the gravitational field. The GGF model simulates the evolution of opinions among clusters in a network and studies the law of group behavior according to the influence between clusters based on Coulomb’s law. Experiments on real social networks verify that the GGF model enhances the speed of opinion evolution significantly. The simulation experiments indicate that the existence of clusters promotes the rapid convergence of opinions, a gathering of followers influences information dissemination in social networks, and the GGF model fits the reality better. This article provides a new approach to network supervision and control.