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arXiv · 2510.08190

Geometric opinion exchange polarizes in every dimension

Abdou Majeed Alidou·Júlia Baligács·Jan Hązła
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Abstract

A recent line of work studies models of opinion exchange where agent opinions about $d$ topics are tracked simultaneously. The opinions are represented as vectors on the unit $(d-1)$-sphere, and the update rule is based on the overall correlation between the relevant vectors. The update rule reflects the assumption of biased assimilation, i.e., a pair of opinions is brought closer together if their correlation is positive and further apart if the correlation is negative. This model seems to induce the polarization of opinions into two antipodal groups. This is in contrast to many other known models which tend to achieve consensus. The polarization property has been recently proved for $d=2$, but the general case of $d \ge 3$ remained open. In this work, we settle the general case, using a more detailed understanding of the model dynamics and tools from the theory of random processes.

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Abdou Majeed Alidou, Júlia Baligács, Jan Hązła. 2025-10-09. Geometric opinion exchange polarizes in every dimension. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.08190

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