Models of the dynamics of opinion. A literature review

Abstract

The study of public opinion is turning in the last years, the study from the traditional descriptive approach with informative and advising purposes to a new explana-tory and generativist approach. This new perspective has focused on the construction and analysis of mod-els where local, microscopic, interactions generate macroscopic regularities in public opinion. The fertility of this new approach is causing a publication rhythm that can be overwhelming. In this paper, we present an up to date revision of the literature on opinion dynam-ics models. We present the main models and their ex-tensions, and organize the exposition around ten axes that configure the content of each contribution. The paper also offers some reflections on the main chal-lenges for those social scientists that are interested in the dynamics of public opinion.