Activation Regimes in Opinion Dynamics: Comparing Asynchronous Updating Schemes

22 Pages Posted: 7 Sep 2016

See all articles by Meysam Alizadeh

Meysam Alizadeh

Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Claudio Cioffi-Revilla

George Mason University - Center for Social Complexity; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Mathematical Society; Society for Political Methodology

Date Written: August 25, 2015

Abstract

Empirical evidences have supported the large heterogeneity in the timing of individuals' activities. Moreover, computational analysis of the agent-based models has shown the importance of the activation regimes. In this paper, we apply four different asynchronous updating schemes including random, uniform, and two state-driven Poisson updating schemes on an agent-based opinion dynamics model. We compare the effect of these activation regimes by measuring the appropriate opinion clustering statistics and also the number of emergent extremists. The results exhibit both qualitative and quantitative difference between different activation regimes which in some cases are counterintuitive. In particular, we find that exposing the radical/moderate agents to more encounters decreases/increases the average number of extremists compared to other types of activation regimes. The results also show that no specific updating scheme can always outperform the others in reaching to consensus.

Suggested Citation

Alizadeh, Meysam and Cioffi-Revilla, Claudio, Activation Regimes in Opinion Dynamics: Comparing Asynchronous Updating Schemes (August 25, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2830325 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2830325

Meysam Alizadeh (Contact Author)

Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs ( email )

Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1021
United States

Claudio Cioffi-Revilla

George Mason University - Center for Social Complexity ( email )

430 Alhambra Circle
Coral Gables, FL 33134
United States

HOME PAGE: http://socialcomplexity.gmu.edu

American Association for the Advancement of Science ( email )

Washington, DC 20005
United States

American Mathematical Society ( email )

Society for Political Methodology ( email )

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
80
Abstract Views
644
Rank
551,205
PlumX Metrics