Agent-based spatial dynamics explaining sustained opinion survival

Abstract

Opinion is the aggregate of many thinking processes that lead to decision and action in humans. Therefore, the diffussion of opinion in social networks is of great relevance in many fields. Influence is the mechanism by which a human can drive a change in opinion in other human mind. Most current computational models of influence spread are motivated by the need to identify which social actors have maximal influence. An example application aims to achieve high penetration in the market with minimal effort. However, we are interested in the propagation of the opinions per se, and specifically in the mechanisms that allow some minority opinions to survive against the mainstream pressure. We assume that the agents are moving in space, so that spatial relations are modulating friendship and influence relations. We propose a model that shows opinion survival properties, and explore the effect of spatial perception parameters in the opinion difussion and survival process.