Communications Physics (Apr 2021)

The fragility of opinion formation in a complex world

  • Matúš Medo,
  • Manuel S. Mariani,
  • Linyuan Lü

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00579-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Identifying potential mechanisms behind opinion formation is key to curb the spread of misinformation and fake news. Here, the authors propose a model of opinion formation on a network of relations of trust and distrust between subjects, and show that opinion instability increases with the complexity and size of the system, proposing a candidate mechanism for how trust towards deceptive sources develops.