Paradoxical dynamics of population Opinion in response to influence of moderate leader

This paper describes a simple agent-based model of opinion propagation within hierarchical social networks that exhibits a counter intuitive/unintended consequence of the influence of moderate leadership. In this phenomena, a population of highly polarized but balanced opinions governed by a moderate leader consistently ends in a state where the both the population and the leadership hold extreme opinions opposite to those initially held by the leadership. The experiments are done using our SNODA modeling framework (Social Networks and Opinion Dynamics Analysis tool), designed to perform agent-based modeling and analysis of opinion dynamics in complex social networks.