Opinion dynamics in typical networks with local and global social impacts together

Abstract

We introduce a new opinion model to study the opinion evolving in three typical networks (small-world network, scale-free network and highly clustered scale-free network) by employing Monte Carlo numerical simulation. To consider important social influence, we propose a heat bath like optimized opinion model that includes both local and global social impacts. By employing the new opinion model into three typical networks, we have found the main determinants of the evolution of the opinion, that were the weight constant of the local and global effects, the structure of the network, the size of the network and the initial density of the average opinion. The simulations show how those factors affect the evolving time of reaching the consensus quantitatively. Our model also could explain the cases of de facto standard and lock-in effect, well-known phenomenon in economics and business management.