Opinion dynamics within a virtual small group: the stubbornness effect

Frontiers in Physics

Cini, Alessandro¹  Bagnoli, Franco¹  Guazzini, Andrea²  Ramasco, José³ 

[1] Centre for the Study of Complex Dynamics, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;University of Florence, Department of Education and Psychology, Florence, Italy;University of Florence, Department of Physics and Astronomy, via G. Sansone, 1, Sesto Fiorentino,, 50019, Italy

关键词: Small group dynamics;    cyber psychology;    opinion dynamics;    stubbornness effect;    web base human interaction;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fphy.2015.00065

学科分类：物理（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY