Opinion-dynamics models look at interactions within networks and how these are likely to cause change – usually between two opposing opinions such as voting for a left or right wing political party. The models create successive rounds of “updates” with opinions shifting after each round. “There is of course a fine line between using a model as a framework to guide your exploration and interpreting this too literally,” says Galesic. “They shouldn’t be taken as a direct description of humans and human society – of course humans are not particles living in crystal lattices!” But the models do seem to produce patterns of opinion spread that resemble the real world. Galesic continues, “These very simple models have found a way to derive these patterns using only a few parameters.” | Opinion-dynamics models look at interactions within networks and how these are likely to cause change – usually between two opposing opinions such as voting for a left or right wing political party. The models create successive rounds of “updates” with opinions shifting after each round. “There is of course a fine line between using a model as a framework to guide your exploration and interpreting this too literally,” says Galesic. “They shouldn’t be taken as a direct description of humans and human society – of course humans are not particles living in crystal lattices!” But the models do seem to produce patterns of opinion spread that resemble the real world. Galesic continues, “These very simple models have found a way to derive these patterns using only a few parameters.” |