Impact of Cognitive Dissonance on Social Hysteresis: Insights fromthe Expressed and Private Opinions Model

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Main Authors: Barbara, Kamińska, Katarzyna, Sznajd-Weron
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Barbara, Kamińska
Katarzyna, Sznajd-Weron
author_facet Barbara, Kamińska
Katarzyna, Sznajd-Weron
contents The growing interest in models of opinion dynamics, particularly those that distinguish between private beliefs and publicly expressed opinions, spans several academic disciplines, from the social sciences to the hard sciences. They have been developed to study decision-making mechanisms and applied to many social phenomena, such as pluralistic ignorance, the spiral of silence, or preference falsification. Within these models, however, there is a notable gap in the study of social hysteresis, a concept crucial to understanding the delayed responses of societies to the rapid changes of the modern world. This research aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of cognitive dissonance on social hysteresis through an updated model of expressed and private opinions (EPOs). We study the model both analytically and through Monte Carlo simulations. To facilitate understanding and replication of our model, and to provide a resource for further exploration to a diverse interdisciplinary audience, we have made the special NetLogo implementation of the model publicly available at GitHub. By incorporating a cognitive dissonance mitigation mechanism into an agent-based q-voter-type model of Expressed and Private Opinions (EPOs), we demonstrate that this mechanism induces social hysteresis. Consequently, we argue that refraining from rationalizing publicly expressed opinions could mitigate social hysteresis and facilitate consensus, offering insights into potential strategies for managing societal responses to change.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_16934
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impact of Cognitive Dissonance on Social Hysteresis: Insights fromthe Expressed and Private Opinions Model
Barbara, Kamińska
Katarzyna, Sznajd-Weron
Physics and Society
The growing interest in models of opinion dynamics, particularly those that distinguish between private beliefs and publicly expressed opinions, spans several academic disciplines, from the social sciences to the hard sciences. They have been developed to study decision-making mechanisms and applied to many social phenomena, such as pluralistic ignorance, the spiral of silence, or preference falsification. Within these models, however, there is a notable gap in the study of social hysteresis, a concept crucial to understanding the delayed responses of societies to the rapid changes of the modern world. This research aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of cognitive dissonance on social hysteresis through an updated model of expressed and private opinions (EPOs). We study the model both analytically and through Monte Carlo simulations. To facilitate understanding and replication of our model, and to provide a resource for further exploration to a diverse interdisciplinary audience, we have made the special NetLogo implementation of the model publicly available at GitHub. By incorporating a cognitive dissonance mitigation mechanism into an agent-based q-voter-type model of Expressed and Private Opinions (EPOs), we demonstrate that this mechanism induces social hysteresis. Consequently, we argue that refraining from rationalizing publicly expressed opinions could mitigate social hysteresis and facilitate consensus, offering insights into potential strategies for managing societal responses to change.
title Impact of Cognitive Dissonance on Social Hysteresis: Insights fromthe Expressed and Private Opinions Model
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.16934