Cultural and opinion dynamics in small-world "social" networks
Lee, Yunsub (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)

Date:	2025
Abstract:	This study shows the importance of considering two social network features in agent-based models of cultural and opinion dynamics - network segregation by groups (e. g. race, class, or ideology) and interaction frequency by structural embeddedness. I formalize the two features as modeling conditions and apply them to an existing model that shows cultural or opinion polarization can emerge in a small-world network by the bridging of long-range ties. I find that when a small-world network is segregated, the inactivity of long-range ties (i. e. infrequent interactions) - instead of the bridging - becomes the key feature that contributes conversely to consensus or more extreme polarization. This implies that a systemic understanding of dyadic-level tie characteristics and suitable approaches to considering social networks in agent-based models are necessary.
Grants:	European Commission 101020038
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Agent-based model ; Consensus ; Long-range ties ; Network segregation ; Polarization ; Structural embeddedness
Published in:	The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, Vol. 49, Num. 2 (2025) , p. 83-108, ISSN 1545-5874

DOI: 10.1080/0022250X.2024.2423941

27 p, 4.4 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles