DeGroot-Friedkin Map in Opinion Dynamics is Mirror Descent

Abstract: We provide a variational interpretation of the DeGroot-Friedkin map in opinion dynamics. Specifically, we show that the nonlinear dynamics for the DeGroot-Friedkin map can be viewed as mirror descent on the standard simplex with the associated Bregman divergence being equal to the generalized Kullback-Leibler divergence, i.e., an entropic mirror descent. Our results reveal that the DeGroot-Friedkin map elicits an individual's social power to be close to her social influence while minimizing the so called "extropy" -- the entropy of the complimentary opinion.