The Peace Mediator effect: Heterogeneous agents can foster consensus in continuous opinion models

Abstract

Statistical mechanics has proven to be able to capture the fundamental rules underlying phenomena of social aggregation and opinion dynamics, well studied in disciplines like sociology and psychology. This approach is based on the underlying paradigm that the interesting dynamics of multi-agent systems emerge from the correct definition of few parameters governing the evolution of each individual. Into this context, we propose a particular model of opinion dynamics based on the psychological construct named "cognitive dissonance". Our system is made of interacting individuals, the agents, each bearing only two dynamical variables (respectively "opinion" and "affinity") self-consistently adjusted during time evolution. We also define two special classes of interacting entities, both acting for a peace mediation process but via different course of action: "diplomats" and "auctoritates". The behavior of the system with and without peace mediators (PMs) is investigated and discussed with reference to corresponding psychological and social implications.