CIECS   20730
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES Y ESTUDIOS SOBRE CULTURA Y SOCIEDAD
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Range of interaction in an opinion evolution model of ideological self-positioning: contagion, hesitance and polarization.
Autor/es:
MAXIMILIANO A. BURGOS PACI; ANA PAMELA PAZ GARCÍA; M. CECILIA GIMÉNEZ; LUIS REINAUDI
Revista:
PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS
Editorial:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Referencias:
Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 p. 320 - 330
ISSN:
0378-4371
Resumen:
The evolution of public opinion using tools and concepts borrowed from Statistical Physics is an emerging area within the field of Sociophysics. In the present paper, a Statistical Physics model was developed to study the evolution of  the ideological self-positioning of an ensemble of agents. The model consists of an  array of L components, each one of which represents the ideology of an agent.  The proposed mechanism is based on the ``voter model´´, in which one agent can adopt the opinion of another one if the difference of their opinions lies within a certain range. The existence of ``undecided´´ agents (i.e. agents with no definite opinion) was implemented in the model.  The possibility of radicalization of an agent´s opinion upon interaction with another one was also implemented.  The results of our simulations are compared to statistical data taken from the Latinobarómetro  databank for the cases of Argentina, Chile, Brasil and Uruguay in the last decade.  Among other results, the effect of taking into account the undecided agents is the formation of a single peak at the middle of the ideological spectrum (which corresponds to a centrist ideological position),  in agreement with the real cases studied.