Kinetic modeling of a Sznajd opinion model on social networks

Abstract

In this paper, we study a kinetic modeling of opinion formation on social networks in which the distribution function depends on both the opinion and the connectivity of the agents. The opinion exchange process is governed by a Sznajd-type model with three opinions, [Formula: see text], 0, and the social network is represented statistically with connectivity denoting the number of contacts of a given individual. It is commonly accepted that, in social networks, the opinion of the agents with a higher connectivity, i.e. a larger number of followers, is more convincing than that of the agents with a lower number of followers. By the kinetic modeling approach, we derived the asymptotic mean opinion of a social network in terms of the initial opinion and the connectivity of the agents. The present work extends the result in [N. Loy, M. Raviola and A. Tosin, Opinion polarisation in social networks, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 380, 20210158 (2021)] where only binary opinions, [Formula: see text], were considered, that indecisive people who cannot make a clear choice between [Formula: see text] are allowed in this study.