DocumentCode :
3103950
Title :
Follow the Leader: Profiling Agents in an Opinion Formation Model of Dynamic Confidence and Individual Mind-Sets
Author :
Ramirez-Cano, Daniel ; Pitt, Jeremy
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Imperial Coll. London, London
fYear :
2006
fDate :
18-22 Dec. 2006
Firstpage :
660
Lastpage :
667
Abstract :
We present and analyse a model of opinion formation with dynamic confidence in agent-mediated social networks where the profiling of agents as leaders or followers is possible. An opinion leader is specified as a highly self- confident agent with strong opinions. An opinion follower is attracted to those agents in which it has more confidence. In our model, an agent i increases its confidence in another agent j based on how well j ´s opinion meets the criteria specified in i´s mind-set. A mind-set represents the set of beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and tendencies that predetermine the way an agent evaluates a received opinion. It is observed that the opinion formation in a group of persuadable agents, with similar confidence in each other, can easily lead to group think with agents following each other and one (or some) following the opinion of a single opinionated agent (i.e. an opinion leader). However this can be prevented by having at least one more self-confident, opinionated agent with an alternative opinion. This shows that divergent opinions from opinionated agents inhibit consensus. Furthermore, it is seen that once an equilibrium in the opinion formation has been reached, paradigm shifts can occur as the result of the sudden appearance of alternative opinion leaders.
Keywords :
social sciences; agent-mediated social network; dynamic confidence; individual mindsets; opinion follower; opinion formation model; profiling agents; Analytical models; Educational institutions; Information analysis; Information resources; Intelligent agent; Intelligent networks; Intelligent systems; Nominations and elections; Social network services; Voting;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Intelligent Agent Technology, 2006. IAT '06. IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Hong Kong
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-2748-5
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/IAT.2006.67
Filename :
4052991
Link To Document :
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