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arXiv · 2205.12503

Maximising the Influence of Temporary Participants in Opinion Formation

Zhiqiang Zhuang·Kewen Wang·Zhe Wang·Junhu Wang·Yinong Yang
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Abstract

DeGroot-style opinion formation presumes a continuous interaction among agents of a social network. Hence, it cannot handle agents external to the social network that interact only temporarily with the permanent ones. Many real-world organisations and individuals fall into such a category. For instance, a company tries to persuade as many as possible to buy its products and, due to various constraints, can only exert its influence for a limited amount of time. We propose a variant of the DeGroot model that allows an external agent to interact with the permanent ones for a preset period of time. We obtain several insights on maximising an external agent's influence in opinion formation by analysing and simulating the variant.

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Zhiqiang Zhuang, Kewen Wang, Zhe Wang, Junhu Wang, Yinong Yang. 2022-05-25. Maximising the Influence of Temporary Participants in Opinion Formation. https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.12503

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