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The dynamics of opinion in hierarchical organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Laguna, M.F.
  • Risau Gusman, S.
  • Abramson, G.
  • Gonçalves, S.
  • Iglesias, J.R.

Abstract

We study the mutual influence of authority and persuasion in the flow of opinions. We describe a simple model with no social mobility, where each agent belongs to a class in the hierarchy and has also a persuasion capability. Agents use the force of its persuasion to propagate their opinions; however a high-rank agent can also use its authority to impose its opinion on other ones. The model is studied analytically within a mean field approximation and by means of numerical simulations. In the case of a three authority level hierarchy the agreement between the two approaches is excellent. We obtain a phase diagram identifying the relative frequency of the prevailing opinions, and find that the stratum where the dominant opinion arises from is strongly dependent on the relative population of each hierarchy level. The time evolution shows that conflicting opinions polarize after a short transient.

Suggested Citation

  • Laguna, M.F. & Risau Gusman, S. & Abramson, G. & Gonçalves, S. & Iglesias, J.R., 2005. "The dynamics of opinion in hierarchical organizations," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 351(2), pages 580-592.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:351:y:2005:i:2:p:580-592
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.11.064
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Markus Brede, 2019. "How Does Active Participation Affect Consensus: Adaptive Network Model of Opinion Dynamics and Influence Maximizing Rewiring," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-16, June.
    2. Francisco J. León-Medina & Jordi Tena-Sánchez & Francisco J. Miguel, 2020. "Fakers becoming believers: how opinion dynamics are shaped by preference falsification, impression management and coherence heuristics," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 385-412, April.
    3. Sebastian Goncalves & M. F. Laguna & J. R. Iglesias, 2012. "Why, when, and how fast innovations are adopted," Papers 1208.2589, arXiv.org.
    4. Lee, Eun & Holme, Petter & Lee, Sang Hoon, 2017. "Modeling the dynamics of dissent," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 486(C), pages 262-272.
    5. Snellman, Jan E. & Barrio, Rafael A. & Kaski, Kimmo K., 2021. "Social structure formation in a network of agents playing a hybrid of ultimatum and dictator games," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 561(C).

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