Bias and Identifiability in the Bounded Confidence Model
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866912428693913600 |
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| author | Borile, Claudio Lenti, Jacopo Ghidini, Valentina Monti, Corrado Morales, Gianmarco De Francisci |
| author_facet | Borile, Claudio Lenti, Jacopo Ghidini, Valentina Monti, Corrado Morales, Gianmarco De Francisci |
| contents | Opinion dynamics models such as the bounded confidence models (BCMs) describe how a population can reach consensus, fragmentation, or polarization, depending on a few parameters. Connecting such models to real-world data could help understanding such phenomena, testing model assumptions. To this end, estimation of model parameters is a key aspect, and maximum likelihood estimation provides a principled way to tackle it. Here, our goal is to outline the properties of statistical estimators of the two key BCM parameters: the confidence bound and the convergence rate. We find that their maximum likelihood estimators present different characteristics: the one for the confidence bound presents a small-sample bias but is consistent, while the estimator of the convergence rate shows a persistent bias. Moreover, the joint parameter estimation is affected by identifiability issues for specific regions of the parameter space, as several local maxima are present in the likelihood function. Our results show how the analysis of the likelihood function is a fruitful approach for better understanding the pitfalls and possibilities of estimating the parameters of opinion dynamics models, and more in general, agent-based models, and for offering formal guarantees for their calibration. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_11751 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Bias and Identifiability in the Bounded Confidence Model Borile, Claudio Lenti, Jacopo Ghidini, Valentina Monti, Corrado Morales, Gianmarco De Francisci Methodology Computers and Society Machine Learning Physics and Society Opinion dynamics models such as the bounded confidence models (BCMs) describe how a population can reach consensus, fragmentation, or polarization, depending on a few parameters. Connecting such models to real-world data could help understanding such phenomena, testing model assumptions. To this end, estimation of model parameters is a key aspect, and maximum likelihood estimation provides a principled way to tackle it. Here, our goal is to outline the properties of statistical estimators of the two key BCM parameters: the confidence bound and the convergence rate. We find that their maximum likelihood estimators present different characteristics: the one for the confidence bound presents a small-sample bias but is consistent, while the estimator of the convergence rate shows a persistent bias. Moreover, the joint parameter estimation is affected by identifiability issues for specific regions of the parameter space, as several local maxima are present in the likelihood function. Our results show how the analysis of the likelihood function is a fruitful approach for better understanding the pitfalls and possibilities of estimating the parameters of opinion dynamics models, and more in general, agent-based models, and for offering formal guarantees for their calibration. |
| title | Bias and Identifiability in the Bounded Confidence Model |
| topic | Methodology Computers and Society Machine Learning Physics and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11751 |