Workshop Structural Balance May 2024
The fragility of opinion formation in a complex world
Matus Medo
Department of Clinical Research, University of Bern, Switzerland
16 May 2024, 16:00–16:30
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Abstract
How does the complexity of the world around us affect the reliability of our opinions? Motivated by this question, we discuss a simple model in which an observer gradually forms opinions about a world composed of subjects interconnected by a signed network of mutual trust and distrust.
We show that when the underlying signed network is not balanced, the opinion formation process is highly fragile. An individual who initially trusts a few credible information sources, for example, likely ends up trusting many deceptive information sources. The introduced mathematical framework allows us to ask further questions such as how to improve the reliability of the formed opinions, why is there a phase transition in opinion formation, and how is this related to group formation.
Relevant publications
https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.013023
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020025522005047