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. 2018 Oct 24;5(10):181122.
doi: 10.1098/rsos.181122. eCollection 2018 Oct.

Opinion formation on dynamic networks: identifying conditions for the emergence of partisan echo chambers

Tucker Evans  1 , Feng Fu  1   2
Affiliations

Opinion formation on dynamic networks: identifying conditions for the emergence of partisan echo chambers

Tucker Evans et al. R Soc Open Sci. .

Abstract

Modern political interaction is characterized by strong partisanship and a lack of interest in information sharing and agreement across party lines. It remains largely unclear how such partisan echo chambers arise and how they coevolve with opinion formation. Here, we explore the emergence of these structures through the lens of coevolutionary games. In our model, the payoff of an individual is determined jointly by the magnitude of their opinion, their degree of conformity with their social neighbours and the benefit of having social connections. Each individual can simultaneously adjust their opinion and the weights of their social connections. We present and validate the conditions for the emergence of partisan echo chambers, characterizing the transition from cohesive communities with a consensus to divisive networks with splitting opinions. Moreover, we apply our model to voting records of the US House of Representatives over a timespan of decades to understand the influence of underlying psychological and social factors on increasing partisanship in recent years. Our work helps elucidate how the division of today has come to be and how cohesion and unity could otherwise be attained on a variety of political and social issues.

Keywords: consensus; polarization; social dynamics.

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Conflict of interest statement

We have no competing interests to declare.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Coevolution of opinions and networks, where individuals can adjust their opinions and their network connections. Panels (a) and (b) show an example of cohesive community with consensus in opinion (Parameters: α = 0.5, β = 0.5, γ = 0.7). Panels (c) and (d) show the formation of echo chambers (Parameters: α = 0.5, β = 0.05, γ = 0.7).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Conditions for the emergence of echo chambers (parameters: α = 0.5, β = 0.7, γ = 0.05).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Inferred model parameters for given network division. Parameters: α = 0.5.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Snapshots of House of Representatives networks generated using our model with inferred model parameter values β and γ (α = 0.5).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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