Abstract

We introduce a general contagionlike model for competing opinions that includes dynamic resistance to alternative opinions. We show that this model can describe candidate vote distributions, spatial vote correlations, and a slow approach to opinion consensus with sensible parameter values. These empirical properties of large group dynamics, previously understood using distinct models, may be different aspects of human behavior that can be captured by a more unified model, such as the one introduced in this paper.

Date

2016

Authors

Keith Burghardt, William Rand, Michelle Girvan

Journal

Physical Review E

Volume

93

Issue

3

Pages

032305

Publisher

American Physical Society