Importance of initial conditions in the polarization of complex networks

Currently used models of opinion formation use random initial conditions. In reality, most people in a social network, except for a small fraction of the population, are initially either unaware of, or indifferent to, the disputed issue. To explore the consequences of such specific initial condition...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2018-06
Main Authors: Shekatkar, Snehal M, Barve, Sukratu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dependence
Dolphins
Initial conditions
Polarization
Social networks
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Currently used models of opinion formation use random initial conditions. In reality, most people in a social network, except for a small fraction of the population, are initially either unaware of, or indifferent to, the disputed issue. To explore the consequences of such specific initial conditions, we study the polarization of social networks when conflicting ideas arise on two different seed nodes and then spread according to a majority rule. Using the configuration model and the stochastic block model as examples, we show that this framework leads to substantially different outcomes than those which employ random initial conditions. Moreover, the empirically observed splits in the karate and the dolphins' networks naturally come out of this paradigm. Our work thus suggests that the existing opinion dynamics models should be reevaluated to incorporate the initial condition dependence.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1802.08885