A rumor control competition model considering intervention of the official rumor-refuting information

Yi Zhang, Jiuping Xu and Yue Wu ()
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Yi Zhang: School of Business, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China†Department of Economics and Business Administration, Yibin University, Yibin 644007, P. R. China
Jiuping Xu: School of Business, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, P. R. China
Yue Wu: School of Computer and Software Engineering, Xihua University, Chengdu 610039, P. R. China

International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), 2020, vol. 31, issue 09, 1-24

Abstract: To avoid social and economic losses, governments need to control rumor propagation by releasing official rumor-refuting information (ORI) to dispel the rumors. Therefore, understanding the complex competition mechanism between ORI and rumors is key to successfully refuting rumors. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the function of ORI in suppressing and quashing rumors. First, the influencing factors were determined from which a competition model was constructed and the quenched mean-field method employed to determine the rumor outbreak threshold. It was found that public cognition could affect the rumor threshold and lead to rumor depletion, which was confirmed in a model simulation. The simulation results also indicated that government credibility and the release time of ORI played a critical role in controlling rumors. Specifically, it was found that when government credibility was high, the ORI release was able to quash the rumor spread. And it is shown that the government should release the ORI as soon as possible, and ensure the continuous dissemination of ORI to dispel rumors effectively.

Keywords: Rumor spreading; rumor-refuting information; government credibility; cognition; intervention time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1142/S0129183120501235

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