DOACSA

“OPINION DYNAMICS, COLLECTIVE ACTION AND ABRUPT SOCIAL CHANGES:
THE ROLE OF PREFERENCE FALSIFICATION AND SOCIAL NETWORKS”

KEYWORDS: public opinion, social simulation, social experiments, institutional design, social networks

Founded Research project  -- 2020-2024 -- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, R&D&I National Program, Ref.: PID2019-107589GB-I00.

IPs: Jordi TENA & Francisco LINARES

The aim of this project is to develop a simulation model that contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms for the formation of public opinion. More particularly, the project is particularly interested in the role that falsification of preferences and social norms can play in these dynamics and in how these can lead to abrupt and unexpected social changes.

This prototype tool is intended, on the one hand, to be calibrated with actual data taken out of an experimental design, so that the impact on the results of typical socio-demographic variables -especially gender and whether or not they belong to minorities- can be evaluated; as well as to study the differential effect from a number of different social networks topologies.

Finally, it is intended to carry out a retrospective assessment of the model, contrasting its results with test cases of well-known historical processes, as well as a prospective exercise through the study of opinion dynamics in progress.