eprintid: 3689
rev_number: 10
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/36/89
datestamp: 2017-04-18 08:57:40
lastmod: 2017-04-18 08:57:40
status_changed: 2017-04-18 08:57:40
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Del Vicario, Michela
creators_name: Scala, Antonio
creators_name: Caldarelli, Guido
creators_name: Stanley, H. Eugene
creators_name: Quattrociocchi, Walter
creators_id: michela.delvicario@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: guido.caldarelli@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: walter.quattrociocchi@imtlucca.it
title: Modeling confirmation bias and polarization
ispublished: pub
subjects: HA
subjects: QA75
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: public
keywords: Complex networks, Statistical physics
abstract: Online users tend to select claims that adhere to their system of beliefs and to ignore dissenting information. Confirmation bias, indeed, plays a pivotal role in viral phenomena. Furthermore, the wide availability of content on the web fosters the aggregation of likeminded people where debates tend to enforce group polarization. Such a configuration might alter the public debate and thus the formation of the public opinion. In this paper we provide a mathematical model to study online social debates and the related polarization dynamics. We assume the basic updating rule of the Bounded Confidence Model (BCM) and we develop two variations a) the Rewire with Bounded Confidence Model (RBCM), in which discordant links are broken until convergence is reached; and b) the Unbounded Confidence Model, under which the interaction among discordant pairs of users is allowed even with a negative feedback, either with the rewiring step (RUCM) or without it (UCM). From numerical simulations we find that the new models (UCM and RUCM), unlike the BCM, are able to explain the coexistence of two stable final opinions, often observed in reality. Lastly, we present a mean field approximation of the newly introduced models.
date: 2017
date_type: published
publication: Scientific Reports
volume: 7
publisher: NPG
pagerange: 40391
id_number: doi:10.1038/srep40391
refereed: TRUE
issn: 2045-2322
official_url: http://doi.org/10.1038/srep40391
projects: EU FET project MULTIPLEX nr. 317532
projects: SIMPOL nr. 610704
projects: DOLFINS nr. 640772
projects: SOBIGDATA nr. 654024
citation:   Del Vicario, Michela and Scala, Antonio and Caldarelli, Guido and Stanley, H. Eugene and Quattrociocchi, Walter  Modeling confirmation bias and polarization.  Scientific Reports, 7.  p. 40391.  ISSN 2045-2322      (2017)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3689/1/srep40391.pdf