The influence of community structure on opinion expression: an agent-based model
The influence of community structure on opinion expression: an agent-based model
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DOI：
10.1007/s11573-021-01064-7
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发表时间：
2021-10-20
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Stieglitz S
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Cabrera B;Ross B;Röchert D;Brünker F;Stieglitz S
社交媒体在塑造公众对有争议话题的讨论方面已经变得非常重要。因此，许多企业都在监控不同的社交媒体渠道，并试图对潜在有害的舆论氛围做出适当的反应。然而，在一个联系日益紧密的世界里，人们对意见是如何形成的知之甚少。沉默螺旋理论提供了一种解释公众感知到的舆论氛围与真实信念之间偏差的方法。然而，在社交媒体上出现的沉默螺旋很难观察到，因为只有那些表达自己观点的人的想法是显而易见的。因此，最近的研究集中在模拟沉默螺旋背后的过程。社交媒体网络的一个特殊特征是社区的存在。一个社区的成员往往与同一社区的其他成员联系更紧密，而不是与外人联系。当然，这可能会影响公众舆论的发展。在本文中，我们研究了网络中社区的数量及其之间的连通性如何影响感知的意见气候。我们发现，社区之间的联系越紧密，就越有可能出现全球沉默的螺旋。此外，一个网络分裂成更多、更小的社区，似乎为少数意见的盛行提供了更多的“安全空间”。
Social media has become important in shaping the public discourse on controversial topics. Many businesses therefore monitor different social media channels and try to react adequately to a potentially harmful opinion climate. Still, little is known about how opinions form in an increasingly connected world. The spiral of silence theory provides a way of explaining deviations between the perceived opinion climate and true beliefs of the public. However, the emergence of a spiral of silence on social media is hard to observe because only the thoughts of those who express their opinions are evident there. Recent research has therefore focused on modelling the processes behind the spiral of silence. A particular characteristic of social media networks is the presence of communities. Members of a community tend to be connected more with other members of the same community than with outsiders. Naturally, this might affect the development of public opinion. In the present article we investigate how the number of communities in a network and connectivity between them affects the perceived opinion climate. We find that higher connectivity between communities makes it more likely for a global spiral of silence to appear. Moreover, a network fragmented into more, smaller communities seems to provide more “safe spaces” for a minority opinion to prevail.