eprintid: 2121
rev_number: 6
eprint_status: archive
userid: 6
dir: disk0/00/00/21/21
datestamp: 2014-01-24 13:29:01
lastmod: 2014-01-24 13:29:01
status_changed: 2014-01-24 13:29:01
type: monograph
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Giardini, Francesca
creators_name: Quattrociocchi, Walter
creators_name: Conte, Rosaria
creators_id: 
creators_id: walter.quattrociocchi@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
title: Rooting opinions in the minds: a cognitive model and a formal account of opinions and their dynamics
ispublished: submitted
subjects: QA75
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: none
monograph_type: working_paper
abstract: The study of opinions, their formation and change, is one of the defining topics addressed by social psychology, but in recent years other disciplines, like computer science and complexity, have tried to deal with this issue. Despite the flourishing of different models and theories in both fields, several key questions still remain unanswered. The understanding of how opinions change and the way they are affected by social influence are challenging issues requiring a thorough analysis of opinion per se but also of the way in which they travel between agents' minds and are modulated by these exchanges. To account for the two-faceted nature of opinions, which are mental entities undergoing complex social processes, we outline a preliminary model in which a cognitive theory of opinions is put forward and it is paired with a formal description of them and of their spreading among minds. Furthermore, investigating social influence also implies the necessity to account for the way in which people change their minds, as a consequence of interacting with other people, and the need to explain the higher or lower persistence of such changes. 
date: 2011
number:  
publisher: ArXiv
pages: 5
institution: IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca
official_url: http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.4218
related_url_url: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1106.4218v1.pdf
citation:   Giardini, Francesca and Quattrociocchi, Walter and Conte, Rosaria  Rooting opinions in the minds: a cognitive model and a formal account of opinions and their dynamics.  Working Paper  # /2011    ArXiv       (Submitted)