Multi-population opinion dynamics model

Abstract: We introduce multi-population opinion dynamics models linked to the bounded confidence model, aiming to explore how interactions between individuals contribute to the emergence of consensus, polarization, or fragmentation. Existing models either neglect agent similarities, sacrificing accuracy for scalability, or prioritize accuracy by introducing agent-wise connections, constraining scalability. Our proposed model captures similarities between agents in scalable matter. In our setting, agents similarities are defined by their group affiliations. Specifically, each sub-population is characterized by its distribution, and the closeness between two sub-populations is measured by the Wasserstein distance of their corresponding distributions. This leads to two mutually connected dynamics: micro, the individual-based dynamics, and the macro, the distribution-based one. The individual-wise interactions take into account the population-wise interactions (similarities), and the population-wise interactions are updated based on the individual-wise interactions. We have proven the well-posedness of our models. Additionally, we conducted several simulations to mimic certain complex social phenomena.