Effect of Zealots on the Opinion Dynamics of Rational Agents with Bounded Confidence

摘要

This paper incorporates a micro-level decision-making paradigm alongwith a social interaction model (bounded confidence) in the presence ofinfluences (zealots). Every agent in the society represents a node in aBarabási–Albert network and is given a decision-making ability (to choosefrom a fixed set of states). The decision making is based on maximizationof estimated accumulated rewards gained as a result of an individual’s ownsequence of choices in the presence of different probabilities of externalevents. The effects of interactions, and events on the final distribution ofdecision states are studied with and without the presence of influences.Bounded confidence model parameters (the distance parameter and theconvergence parameter) are used to study the final distribution of states,and the time the society needs to reach its equilibrium (convergence time).Finally, effects of network topology on the final distribution of states andconvergence time are presented.