Impact of contrarians and intransigents in a kinetic model of opinion dynamics

Abstract

In this work we study opinion formation on a fully-connected population participating of a public debate with two distinct choices, where the agents may adopt three different attitudes (favorable to either one choice or to the other, or undecided). The interactions between agents occur by pairs and are competitive, with couplings that are either negative with probability $p$ or positive with probability $1-p$. This bimodal probability distribution of couplings produces a behavior similar to the one resulting from the introduction of Galam's contrarians in the population. In addition, we consider that a fraction $d$ of the individuals are intransigent, that is, reluctant to change their opinions. The consequences of the presence of contrarians and intransigents are studied by means of computer simulations. Our results suggest that the presence of inflexible agents affects the critical behavior of the system, causing either the shift of the critical point or the suppression of the ordering phase transition, depending on the groups of opinions intransigents belong to. We also discuss the relevance of the model for real social systems.

19 pages, 8 figures, to appear in PRE

References in corpus (6)

• Statistical physics of social dynamics
• On the Role of Zealotry in the Voter Model
• The role of inflexible minorities in the breaking of democratic opinion dynamics
• Continuous Opinions and Discrete Actions in Opinion Dynamics Problems
• Role of conviction in nonequilibrium models of opinion formation
• Phase transition in a coevolving network of conformist and contrarian voters

Cited by in corpus (33)

• Zealots in the mean-field noisy voter model
• Modeling Radicalization Phenomena in Heterogeneous Populations
• Disorder induced phase transition in an opinion dynamics model: results in 2 and 3 dimensions
• Phase transitions in the majority-vote model with two types of noises
• Conformism-driven phases of opinion formation on heterogeneous networks: the q-voter model case
• Threshold $q$-voter model
• The noisy voter model under the influence of contrarians
• Tipping points in opinion dynamics: a universal formula in five dimensions
• Inflexibility and independence: Phase transitions in the majority-rule model
• Bifurcations in models of a society of reasonable contrarians and conformists
• Symmetry breaking by heating in a continuous opinion model
• Phase transitions and universality in the Sznajd model with anticonformity
• Critical noise can make the minority candidate win: The US Presidential Election cases
• From Microscopic Heterogeneity to Macroscopic Complexity in the Contrarian Voter Model
• Consequences of nonconformist behaviors in a continuous opinion model
• Role of the plurality rule in multiple choices
• Adoption of Innovations with Contrarians and Repentant Agents
• Noise-induced absorbing phase transition in a model of opinion formation
• Dynamical Galam model
• Impact of Committed Minorities: Unveiling Critical Mass of Cooperation in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game
• Double transition in kinetic exchange opinion models with activation dynamics
• Contrarian Voter Model under the influence of an Oscillating Propaganda: Consensus, Bimodal behavior and Stochastic Resonance
• Role of inflexible minorities in the evolution of alcohol consumption
• Contrarian effects and echo chamber formation in opinion dynamics
• Opinion dynamics: Public and private
• Nonequilibrium phase transitions and absorbing states in a model for the dynamics of religious affiliation
• The Value of Conflict in Stable Social Networks
• Stochastic Bifurcations in the Nonlinear Parallel Ising Model
• Complete synchronization equivalence in asynchronous and delayed coupled maps
• A novel analytical formulation of the Axelrod model
• From synchronous to one-time delayed dynamics in coupled maps
• Formation of opinion of one is own conviction about a Small World topology
• Effect of undecided agents on an opinion-forming model