Abstract
The modeling of opinion dynamics is social systems has attracted a good deal of attention in the last decade. Even though based on intuition and observation, the mechanisms behind many of these models need solid empirical grounding. In this work, we investigate the relation among subjective variables (such as the personality), the dynamics of the affinity network dynamics, the communication patterns emerging throughout the social interactions and the opinions dynamics in a series of experiments with five small groups of ten people each. In order to ignite the discussion, the polemic topic of animal experimentation was proposed. The groups essentially polarized in two factions with a set of stubborn individuals (those not changing their opinions in time) playing the role of anchors. Our results suggest that the different layers present in the group dynamics (i.e., individual level, group dynamics and meso-communication) are deeply intermingled, specifically the stubbornness effect appears to be related to the dynamical features of the network topologies, and only in an undirected way to the personality of the participants.
Highlights
Opinion dynamics modeling has witnessed a surge of interest in the last few years [1]
Given the quasi-systematic co-occurrence of the previous described phenomena during a human group interaction, it is easy to understand how important is to consider all of them in the experimental design, as well as in the data interpretation. In our work, such considerations are taken into account by gathering some data about the “hidden” network that can affect the interactions among the participants and the opinion dynamics, such a network as the affinity among the individuals is considered
The experimental condition and the virtual experimental environment were designed in order to investigate the opinion dynamics of a small group of totally unknown people, gathering their affinity network representations, their opinion at a certain time, and every aspect related to their communication networks
Summary
Opinion dynamics modeling has witnessed a surge of interest in the last few years [1]. The size of the small group allows participants to manage a large amount of cognitive and affective information, which leads to a complex prototype construction process prompting individuals to interact effectively with the other members of the group Given the quasi-systematic co-occurrence of the previous described phenomena during a human group interaction, it is easy to understand how important is to consider all of them in the experimental design, as well as in the data interpretation In our work, such considerations are taken into account by gathering some data about the “hidden” network that can affect the interactions among the participants and the opinion dynamics, such a network as the affinity among the individuals is considered. The conclusions of our work, and the deriving implication from the small group opinion dynamics interpretation are summarized
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