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Opinion dynamics and wisdom under out-group discrimination

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  • Eger, Steffen

Abstract

We study a DeGroot-like opinion dynamics model in which agents may oppose other agents. As an underlying motivation, in our setup, agents want to adjust their opinions to match those of the agents of their ‘in-group’ and, in addition, they want to adjust their opinions to match the ‘inverse’ of those of the agents of their ‘out-group’. Our paradigm can account for persistent disagreement in connected societies as well as bi- and multi-polarization. Outcomes depend upon network structure and the choice of deviation function modeling the mode of opposition between agents. For a particular choice of deviation function, which we call soft opposition, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for long-run polarization. We also consider social influence (who are the opinion leaders in the network?) as well as the question of wisdom in our naïve learning paradigm, finding that wisdom is difficult to attain when there exist sufficiently strong negative relations between agents.11Earlier and more verbose working paper versions of this article can be found at http://arxiv.org/pdf/1306.3134 and the author’s personal website.

Suggested Citation

  • Eger, Steffen, 2016. "Opinion dynamics and wisdom under out-group discrimination," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 97-107.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:matsoc:v:80:y:2016:i:c:p:97-107
    DOI: 10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2016.02.005
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    1. repec:cup:cbooks:9780511771576 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Buechel, Berno & Hellmann, Tim & Klößner, Stefan, 2015. "Opinion dynamics and wisdom under conformity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-257.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Flache, 2018. "About Renegades And Outgroup Haters: Modeling The Link Between Social Influence And Intergroup Attitudes," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(06n07), pages 1-32, September.
    2. Billand, Pascal & Bravard, Christophe & Kamphorst, Jurjen & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2017. "Network formation when players seek confirmation of information," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 20-31.
    3. Huang, Jia-Ping & Koster, Maurice & Lindner, Ines, 2016. "Diffusion of behavior in network games with threshold dynamics," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 109-118.

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