Anonymous Social Influence

Manuel Förster, Michel Grabisch and Agnieszka Rusinowsk
Additional contact information
Manuel Förster: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, Université catholique de Louvain – CORE, Belgium
Agnieszka Rusinowsk: Paris School of Economics – CNRS Centre d’Économie de la Sorbonne, France
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Manuel Foerster

No 2013.51, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: We study a stochastic model of influence where agents have “yes” or “no” inclinations on some issue, and opinions may change due to mutual influence among the agents. Each agent independently aggregates the opinions of the other agents and possibly herself. We study influence processes modelled by ordered weighted averaging operators, which are anonymous: they only depend on how many agents share an opinion. For instance, this allows to study situations where the influence process is based on majorities, which are not covered by the classical approach of weighted averaging aggregation. We find a necessary and sufficient condition for convergence to consensus and characterize outcomes where the society ends up polarized. Our results can also be used to understand more general situations, where ordered weighted averaging operators are only used to some extent. We provide an analysis of the speed of convergence and the possible outcomes of the process. Furthermore, we apply our results to fuzzy linguistic quantifiers, i.e., expressions like “most” or “at least a few”.

Keywords: Influence; Anonymity; Ordered Weighted Averaging Operator; Convergence; Consensus; Speed Of Convergence; Fuzzy Linguistic Quantifier (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C7 D7 D85 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-gth, nep-mic and nep-net
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Anonymous social influence (2013)
Working Paper: Anonymous Social Influence (2013)
Working Paper: Anonymous social influence (2013)
Working Paper: Anonymous social influence (2013)
Working Paper: Anonymous social influence (2013)
Working Paper: Anonymous social influence (2013)
Working Paper: Anonymous social influence (2013)
Working Paper: Ordered Weighted Averaging in Social Networks (2012)
Working Paper: Ordered Weighted Averaging in Social Networks (2012)
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