Opinion dynamics and wisdom under conformity
- Buechel, Berno University of Hamburg
- Hellmann, Tim Bielefeld University
- Kloessner, Stefan Saarland University
-
2015
Published in:
- Journal of economic dynamics and control. - 2015, vol. 52, p. 240-257
English
We study a dynamic model of opinion formation in social networks. In our model, boundedly rational agents update opinions by averaging over their neighbors’ expressed opinions, but may misrepresent their own opinion by conforming or counter-conforming with their neighbors. We show that an agent׳s social influence on the long-run group opinion is increasing in network centrality and decreasing in conformity. Concerning efficiency of information aggregation or “wisdom” of the society, it turns out that misrepresentation of opinions need not undermine wisdom, but may even enhance it. Given the network, we provide the optimal distribution of conformity levels in the society and show which agents should be more conforming in order to increase wisdom.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
- Department
- Département d'économie politique
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Economics
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
-
- RERO DOC 327339
- DOI 10.1016/j.jedc.2014.12.006
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/308201
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