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From anti-conformism to extremism

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  • G'erard Weisbuch

Abstract

We here present a model of the dynamics of extremism based on opinion dynamics in order to understand the circumstances which favour its emergence and development in large fractions of the general public. Our model is based on the bounded confidence hypothesis and on the evolution of initially anti-conformist agents to extreme positions. Numerical analyses demonstrate that a few anti-conformists are able to drag a large fraction of conformists agents to their position provided that they express their views more often than the conformists. The most influential parameter controlling the outcome of the dynamics is the uncertainty of the conformist agents; the higher their uncertainty, the higher is the influence of anti-conformists. Systematic scans of the parameter space show the existence of two regime transitions, one following the conformists uncertainty parameter and the other one following the anti-conformism strength.

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  • G'erard Weisbuch, 2015. "From anti-conformism to extremism," Papers 1503.04799, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1503.04799
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Matthew Jarman & Andrzej Nowak & Wojciech Borkowski & David Serfass & Alexander Wong & Robin Vallacher, 2015. "The Critical Few: Anticonformists at the Crossroads of Minority Opinion Survival and Collapse," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(1), pages 1-6.
    2. Rainer Hegselmann & Ulrich Krause, 2002. "Opinion Dynamics and Bounded Confidence Models, Analysis and Simulation," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 5(3), pages 1-2.
    3. Guillaume Deffuant & Frederic Amblard & Gérard Weisbuch, 2002. "How Can Extremism Prevail? a Study Based on the Relative Agreement Interaction Model," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 5(4), pages 1-1.
    4. Meysam Alizadeh & Alin Coman & Michael Lewis & Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, 2014. "Intergroup Conflict Escalation Leads to More Extremism," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 17(4), pages 1-4.
    5. Galam, Serge, 2004. "Contrarian deterministic effects on opinion dynamics: “the hung elections scenario”," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 333(C), pages 453-460.
    6. Guillaume Deffuant, 2006. "Comparing Extremism Propagation Patterns in Continuous Opinion Models," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 9(3), pages 1-8.
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    Cited by:

    1. F. Jacobs & S. Galam, 2019. "Two-Opinions-Dynamics Generated By Inflexibles And Non-Contrarian And Contrarian Floaters," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(04), pages 1-30, June.

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