Multi‐agent model of group polarisation with biased assimilation of arguments

Abstract

This study studies the opinion dynamics with group polarisation. The authors say a process of opinion formation is polarising if the final opinions after group discussion are more divergent than individuals’ initial opinions. To capture this phenomenon, they develop a multi-agent model of opinion formation in which each agent forms their opinion according to all arguments available to them, and during interacting with other agents, they assimilate the arguments of neighbours in a biased manner which can be represented by a modified Polya's urn process. They find that biased assimilation of arguments can result in group polarisation effectively, especially under the condition when the agents are relatively isolated in the network.