The spread of agents’ opinions and beliefs have so far been studied independently. However, it can be expected that opinions and beliefs influence each other. Fukuro’s goal is to consider how they are related and this relation’s influence on their propagation in a population.
The objectives of the project are the following.
To design such a hybrid model For that purpose, we propose to model the connection between opinions and beliefs by two cognitive operations: opinion formation and belief alignment. They should maintain the internal consistency between beliefs and opinions (reducing cognitive dissonance) and update one from the other. These operation will rely on values: deep beliefs that help agents to recognize what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Agents will use them to determine preferences between alternative opinions and beliefs. The value-based mechanism is balanced with the inertia, or propensity to avoid change, of agents. They allow for modeling various types of agents (favoring opinions, favoring beliefs, eager to change, resisting to change, etc.).
To experiment with the model In order to understand its behavior and the effect of various parameters, the proposed model will be simulated under various conditions. Sensitivity analyses performed on their influence on the amplitude of change in beliefs and opinions (stability) and the distance between beliefs or opinions (polarisation/convergence).
To study specific questions such as