Competing Opinions and Stubbornness: Connecting Models to Data
17 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2014 Last revised: 23 Feb 2016
Date Written: February 3, 2016
Abstract
We introduce a general contagion-like 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.
Keywords: Competing Contagions, Opinion Dynamics
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Burghardt, Keith and Rand, William and Girvan, Michelle, Competing Opinions and Stubbornness: Connecting Models to Data (February 3, 2016). Robert H. Smith School Research Paper No. RHS 2536235, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2536235 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2536235
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