Abstract
Societies can polarize when there is disagreement on important issues. The rise of social media in recent
years has led to the phenomenon of influencers, who are now prominent in public debate, especially
online. However, their effect on polarization is not well understood. To address this gap in knowledge,
we create an Agent-Based Model of a society into which an influencer is introduced and their effect on
polarization observed. Results show that an influencer holding extreme views will always increase the rate
of polarization, with this effect increasing in line with their reach and activity level. The effect of a neutral
influencer varies with the tolerance for opposing beliefs in the society: slowing the rate of polarization for
relatively tolerant societies, but increasing the rate when societies are more conservative, or the influencer
has narrow reach. Consequently, these results have implications for the design of influencer campaigns for
social good.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | WSC'22 |
Subtitle of host publication | Proceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference |
Editors | B. Feng, G. Pedrielli, Y. Peng, S. Shashaani, E. Song, C.G. Corlu, L.H. Lee, E.P. Chew, T. Roeder, P. Lendermann |
Publisher | IEEE |
Pages | 370-381 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-6654-7661-4 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-1-6654-7662-1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 12 Dec 2022 |
Event | 2022 Winter Simulation Conference: Reimagine Tomorrow - Singapore Duration: 11 Dec 2022 → 14 Dec 2022 https://meetings.informs.org/wordpress/wsc2022/ |
Conference
Conference | 2022 Winter Simulation Conference |
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Period | 11/12/22 → 14/12/22 |
Internet address |