Opinion polarization in the Receipt–Accept–Sample model

Krzysztof Kułakowski

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2009, vol. 388, issue 4, 469-476

Abstract: The Zaller theory of opinion formation is reformulated with one free parameter μ, which measures the largest possible ideological distance which can be made by a citizen in one mental step. Our numerical results show the transient effects: (i) the political awareness, measured by the number of received messages, increases with time first exponentially, later linearly; (ii) for small μ correlations are present between previously and newly received messages; (iii) these correlation lead to a hyperdiffusion effect in the space of attitudes of messages. Citizens with small μ are more prone to extremal opinions.

Keywords: Social systems; Public opinion; Monte Carlo methods; Anomalous diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:388:y:2009:i:4:p:469-476

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2008.10.037

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