Reputation-Driven Voting Dynamics

Abstract

We introduce the reputational voter model (RVM) to account for the time-varying abilities of individuals to influence their neighbors. To understand of the RVM, we first discuss the fitness voter model (FVM), in which each voter has a fixed and distinct fitness. In a voting event where voter $i$ is fitter than voter $j$, only $j$ changes opinion. We show that the dynamics of the FVM and the voter model are identical. We next discuss the adaptive voter model (AVM), in which the influencing voter in a voting event increases its fitness by a fixed amount. The dynamics of the AVM is non-stationary and slowly crosses over to that of FVM because of the gradual broadening of the fitness distribution of the population. Finally, we treat the RVM, in which the voter $i$ is endowed with a reputational rank $r_i$ that ranges from 1 (highest rank) to $N$ (lowest), where $N$ is the population size. In a voting event in which voter $i$ outranks $j$, only the opinion of $j$ changes. Concomitantly, the rank of $i$ increases, while that of $j$ does not change. The rank distribution remains uniform on the integers $1,2,3,\dots ,N$, leading to stationary dynamics. For equal number of voters in the two voting states with these two subpopulations having the same average rand, the time to reach consensus in the mean-field limit scales as $\exp (\sqrt{N})$. This long consensus time arises because the average rank of the minority population is typically higher than that of the majority. Thus whenever consensus is approached, this highly ranked minority tends to drive the population away from consensus.

Extended abstract

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