Three Models of Opinion Dynamics

Three Models of Opinion Dynamics PDF Author: Mary Layton Atkinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009100599
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
This Element develops an explanation of how and why all public policy preferences move over time.

Three Models of Opinion Dynamics

Three Models of Opinion Dynamics PDF Author: Mary Layton Atkinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009100599
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 83

Get Book Here

Book Description
This Element develops an explanation of how and why all public policy preferences move over time.

The Dynamics of Public Opinion

The Dynamics of Public Opinion PDF Author: Mary Layton Atkinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108877281
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
A central question in political representation is whether government responds to the people. To understand that, we need to know what the government is doing, and what the people think of it. We seek to understand a key question necessary to answer those bigger questions: How does American public opinion move over time? We posit three patterns of change over time in public opinion, depending on the type of issue. Issues on which the two parties regularly disagree provide clear partisan cues to the public. For these party-cue issues we present a slight variation on the thermostatic theory from (Soroka and Wlezien (2010); Wlezien (1995)); our “implied thermostatic model.” A smaller number of issues divide the public along lines unrelated to partisanship, and so partisan control of government provides no relevant clue. Finally, we note a small but important class of issues which capture response to cultural shifts.

Opinion Dynamics and the Evolution of Social Power in Social Networks

Opinion Dynamics and the Evolution of Social Power in Social Networks PDF Author: Mengbin Ye
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030106063
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
This book uses rigorous mathematical analysis to advance opinion dynamics models for social networks in three major directions. First, a novel model is proposed to capture how a discrepancy between an individual’s private and expressed opinions can develop due to social pressures that arise in group situations or through extremists deliberately shaping public opinion. Detailed theoretical analysis of the final opinion distribution is followed by use of the model to study Asch’s seminal experiments on conformity, and the phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance. Second, the DeGroot-Friedkin model for evolution of an individual’s social power (self-confidence) is developed in a number of directions. The key result establishes that an individual’s initial social power is forgotten exponentially fast, even when the network changes over time; eventually, an individual’s social power depends only on the (changing) network structure. Last, a model for the simultaneous discussion of multiple logically interdependent topics is proposed. To ensure that a consensus across the opinions of all individuals is achieved, it turns out that the interpersonal interactions must be weaker than an individual’s introspective cognitive process for establishing logical consistency among the topics. Otherwise, the individual may experience cognitive overload and the opinion system becomes unstable. Conclusions of interest to control engineers, social scientists, and researchers from other relevant disciplines are discussed throughout the thesis with support from both social science and control literature.

Participatory Sensing, Opinions and Collective Awareness

Participatory Sensing, Opinions and Collective Awareness PDF Author: Vittorio Loreto
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319256580
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
This book introduces and reviews recent advances in the field in a comprehensive and non-technical way by focusing on the potential of emerging citizen-science and social-computation frameworks, coupled with the latest theoretical and modeling tools developed by physicists, mathematicians, computer and social scientists to analyse, interpret and visualize complex data sets. There is overwhelming evidence that the current organisation of our economies and societies is seriously damaging biological ecosystems and human living conditions in the short term, with potentially catastrophic effects in the long term. The need to re-organise the daily activities with the greatest impact – energy consumption, transport, housing – towards a more efficient and sustainable development model has recently been raised in the public debate on several global, environmental issues. Above all, this requires the mismatch between global, societal and individual needs to be addressed. Recent advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can trigger important transitions at the individual and collective level to achieve this aim. Based on the findings of the collaborative research network EveryAware the following developments among the emerging ICT technologies are discussed in depth in this volume: • Participatory sensing – where ICT development is pushed to the level where it can support informed action at the hyperlocal scale, providing capabilities for environmental monitoring, data aggregation and mining, as well as information presentation and sharing. • Web gaming, social computing and internet-mediated collaboration – where the Web will continue to acquire the status of an infrastructure for social computing, allowing users’ cognitive abilities to be coordinated in online communities, and steering the collective action towards predefined goals. • Collective awareness and decision-making – where the access to both personal and community data, collected by users, processed with suitable analysis tools, and re-presented in an appropriate format by usable communication interfaces leads to a bottom-up development of collective social strategies.

Theory of Complexity

Theory of Complexity PDF Author: Ricardo López-Ruiz
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1789852137
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Over two parts, this book examines the meaning of complexity in the context of systems both social and natural. Chapters cover such topics as the traveling salesman problem, models of opinion dynamics creation, a universal theory for knowledge formation in children, the evaluation of landscape organization and dynamics through information entropy indicators, and studying the performance of wind farms using artificial neural networks. We hope that this book will be useful to an audience interested in the different problems and approaches that are used within the theory of complexity

Complex Population Dynamics

Complex Population Dynamics PDF Author: Peter Turchin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691090211
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
Why do organisms become extremely abundant one year and then seem to disappear a few years later? Why do population outbreaks in particular species happen more or less regularly in certain locations, but only irregularly (or never at all) in other locations? Complex population dynamics have fascinated biologists for decades. By bringing together mathematical models, statistical analyses, and field experiments, this book offers a comprehensive new synthesis of the theory of population oscillations. Peter Turchin first reviews the conceptual tools that ecologists use to investigate population oscillations, introducing population modeling and the statistical analysis of time series data. He then provides an in-depth discussion of several case studies--including the larch budmoth, southern pine beetle, red grouse, voles and lemmings, snowshoe hare, and ungulates--to develop a new analysis of the mechanisms that drive population oscillations in nature. Through such work, the author argues, ecologists can develop general laws of population dynamics that will help turn ecology into a truly quantitative and predictive science. Complex Population Dynamics integrates theoretical and empirical studies into a major new synthesis of current knowledge about population dynamics. It is also a pioneering work that sets the course for ecology's future as a predictive science.

Dynamics and Analysis of Alignment Models of Collective Behavior

Dynamics and Analysis of Alignment Models of Collective Behavior PDF Author: Roman Shvydkoy
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030681475
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
This book introduces a class of alignment models based on the so-called Cucker-Smale system as well as its kinetic and hydrodynamic counterparts. Cutting edge research in the area of collective behavior is presented, including emerging techniques from fluid mechanics, fractional analysis, and kinetic theory. Analytical aspects are highlighted throughout, such as regularity theory and long time behavior of solutions. Featuring open problems, readers will be motivated to apply these breakthrough methods to future research. The chapters offer an overview of state of the art research with introductions to core concepts. Chapter One introduces the central focus of the book: The agent-based Cucker-Smale system. Further agent-based systems and alignment systems are covered in chapters Two and Three. Following this are chapters covering the kinetic and hydrodynamic variants of the Cucker-Smale system. The core well-posedness theory of both smooth and singular models is then presented. Chapter Eight discusses the fully developed one-dimensional theory. The final chapter presents some of the known partial results concerning the regularity of multidimensional Euler Alignment systems. Dynamics and Analysis of Alignment Models of Collective Behavior is ideal for graduate students and researchers studying PDEs, especially those interested in the active areas of collective behavior and alignment models.

Tides of Consent

Tides of Consent PDF Author: James A. Stimson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107108179
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Tracking trends in American public opinion, this study examines moods of public policy over time. It argues that public opinion is decisive in American politics and identifies the citizens who produce influential change as a relatively small subset of the American electorate.

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion PDF Author: John Zaller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521407861
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
This 1992 book explains how people acquire political information from elites and the mass media and convert it into political preferences.

Combative Politics

Combative Politics PDF Author: Mary Layton Atkinson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022644192X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
From the Affordable Care Act to No Child Left Behind, politicians often face a puzzling problem: although most Americans support the aims and key provisions of these policies, they oppose the bills themselves. How can this be? Why does the American public so often reject policies that seem to offer them exactly what they want? By the time a bill is pushed through Congress or ultimately defeated, we’ve often been exposed to weeks, months—even years—of media coverage that underscores the unpopular process of policymaking, and Mary Layton Atkinson argues that this leads us to reject the bill itself. Contrary to many Americans’ understandings of the policymaking process, the best answer to a complex problem is rarely self-evident, and politicians must weigh many potential options, each with merits and drawbacks. As the public awaits a resolution, the news media tend to focus not on the substance of the debate but on descriptions of partisan combat. This coverage leads the public to believe everyone in Washington has lost sight of the problem altogether and is merely pursuing policies designed for individual political gain. Politicians in turn exacerbate the problem when they focus their objections to proposed policies on the lawmaking process, claiming, for example, that a bill is being pushed through Congress with maneuvers designed to limit minority party input. These negative portrayals become linked in many people’s minds with the policy itself, leading to backlash against bills that may otherwise be seen as widely beneficial. Atkinson argues that journalists and educators can make changes to help inoculate Americans against the idea that debate always signifies dysfunction in the government. Journalists should strive to better connect information about policy provisions to the problems they are designed to ameliorate. Educators should stress that although debate sometimes serves political interests, it also offers citizens a window onto the lawmaking process that can help them evaluate the work their government is doing.