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Rise of an alternative majority against opinion leaders

Author

Listed:
  • Tucci, K.
  • González-Avella, J.C.
  • Cosenza, M.G.

Abstract

We investigate the role of opinion leaders or influentials in the collective behavior of a social system. Opinion leaders are characterized by their unidirectional influence on other agents. We employ a model based on Axelrod’s dynamics for cultural interaction among social agents that allows for non-interacting states. We find three collective phases in the space of parameters of the system, given by the fraction of opinion leaders and a quantity representing the number of available states: one ordered phase having the state imposed by the leaders; another nontrivial ordered phase consisting of a majority group in a state orthogonal or alternative to that of the opinion leaders, and a disordered phase, where many small groups coexist. We show that the spontaneous rise of an alternative group in the presence of opinion leaders depends on the existence of a minimum number of long-range connections in the underlying network. This phenomenon challenges the common idea that influentials are fundamental to propagation processes in society, such as the formation of public opinion.

Suggested Citation

  • Tucci, K. & González-Avella, J.C. & Cosenza, M.G., 2016. "Rise of an alternative majority against opinion leaders," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 446(C), pages 75-81.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:446:y:2016:i:c:p:75-81
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.11.022
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    Cited by:

    1. Luo, Qiuju & Zhai, Xueting, 2017. "“I will never go to Hong Kong again!” How the secondary crisis communication of “Occupy Central” on Weibo shifted to a tourism boycott," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 159-172.
    2. Hou, Lei, 2022. "Network versus content: The effectiveness in identifying opinion leaders in an online social network with empirical evaluation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 592(C).

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