Social Work

The fragility of opinion formation in a complex world

M. Medo, M. S. Mariani, et al.

This groundbreaking research by Matúš Medo, Manuel S. Mariani, and Linyuan Lü delves into how the complex web of our interconnected world influences the reliability of opinions. Discover how an uninformed observer attempts to navigate trust and distrust within an intricate network, revealing high levels of inconsistency and instability in opinion formation, which can be alleviated by enhancing initial information.

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Playback language: English

Index

Abstract

This paper investigates how the complexity of the world affects the reliability of opinions. A model of opinion formation is presented, where an uninformed observer forms opinions about subjects interconnected by a signed network representing trust and distrust. The study shows that the observer's opinions are highly inconsistent and unstable, with this inconsistency and instability increasing with world complexity (number of subjects and interactions). However, this increase can be mitigated by expanding the observer's initial information.

Publisher

Communications Physics

Published On

Jan 01, 2021

Authors

Matúš Medo, Manuel S. Mariani, Linyuan Lü

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