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Main Authors: Pham, Tuan, Redner, Sidney, Waldorp, Lourens, Armas, Jay, van der Maas, Han L. J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.24098
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author Pham, Tuan
Redner, Sidney
Waldorp, Lourens
Armas, Jay
van der Maas, Han L. J.
author_facet Pham, Tuan
Redner, Sidney
Waldorp, Lourens
Armas, Jay
van der Maas, Han L. J.
contents Explanations of polarization often rely on one of the three mechanisms: homophily, bounded confidence, and community-based interactions. Models based on these mechanisms consider the lack of interactions as the main cause of polarization. Given the increasing connectivity in modern society, this explanation of polarization may be insufficient. We aim to show that in involvement-based models, society becomes more polarized as its connectedness increases. To this end, we propose a minimal voter-type model (called I-voter) that incorporates involvement as a key mechanism in opinion formation and study its dependence on network connectivity. We describe the steady-state behaviour of the model analytically, at the mean-field and the moment-hierarchy levels and stress the generality of our findings by considering various extensions and different network topologies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_24098
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Polarisation in increasingly connected societies
Pham, Tuan
Redner, Sidney
Waldorp, Lourens
Armas, Jay
van der Maas, Han L. J.
Physics and Society
Explanations of polarization often rely on one of the three mechanisms: homophily, bounded confidence, and community-based interactions. Models based on these mechanisms consider the lack of interactions as the main cause of polarization. Given the increasing connectivity in modern society, this explanation of polarization may be insufficient. We aim to show that in involvement-based models, society becomes more polarized as its connectedness increases. To this end, we propose a minimal voter-type model (called I-voter) that incorporates involvement as a key mechanism in opinion formation and study its dependence on network connectivity. We describe the steady-state behaviour of the model analytically, at the mean-field and the moment-hierarchy levels and stress the generality of our findings by considering various extensions and different network topologies.
title Polarisation in increasingly connected societies
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.24098