Polarization and Fluctuations in Signed Social Networks

Abstract

Much recent research on social networks has focused on the modeling and analysis of how opinions evolve as a function of interpersonal relationships. It is also of great interest to model and understand the implications of friendly and antagonistic relationships. In this paper, we propose a new, simple and intuitive model that incorporates the socio-psychological phenomenon of the boomerang effect in opinion dynamics. We establish that, under certain conditions on the structure of the signed network that corresponds to the so-called structural balance property, the opinions in the network polarize. Compared to other models in the literature, our model displays a richer and perhaps more intuitive behavior of the opinions when the social network does not satisfy structural balance. In particular, we analyze signed networks in which the opinions show persistent fluctuations (including the case of the so-called clustering balance).

Analysis and control of agreement and disagreement opinion cascades

“…The notion of "opinion" most naturally applies to networks of people discussing, expressing, and forming ideas (and opinions) about sociopolitical issues (e.g., governance, economics). Models of opinion dynamics have a long history (DeGroot 1974;Friedkin and Johnsen 1999;Cisneros-Velarde et al 2019;Olfati-Saber and Murray 2004;Altafini 2013). Many modeling efforts focus on understanding the origin of polarized political views (McCarty 2019;Galam and Moscovici 1991;Macy et al 2003;Robert 1997;Dandekar et al 2013).…”