Slow-down or speed-up of inter- and intra-cluster diffusion of controversial knowledge in stubborn communities based on a small world network

被引:5
作者
Ausloos, Marcel [1 ,2 ,3 ]
机构
[1] Univ Leicester, Sch Management, Univ Rd, Leicester LE1 7RH, Leics, England
[2] Royal Netherlands Acad Arts & Sci KNAW, E Humanities Grp, Amsterdam, Netherlands
[3] GRAPES, Liege Angleur, Belgium
来源
FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS | 2015年 / 3卷
关键词
diffusion of controversial knowledge; stubborn communities; small world networks; neocreationists; evolutionists;
D O I
10.3389/fphy.2015.00043
中图分类号
O4 [物理学];
学科分类号
0702 ;
摘要
Diffusion of knowledge is expected to be huge when agents are open minded. The report concerns a more difficult diffusion case when communities are made of stubborn agents. Communities having markedly different opinions are for example the Neocreationist and Intelligent Design Proponents (IDP), on one hand, and the Darwinian Evolution Defenders (DED), on the other hand. The case of knowledge diffusion within such communities is studied here on a network based on an adjacency matrix built from time ordered selected quotations of agents, whence for inter- and intra-communities. The network is intrinsically directed and not necessarily reciprocal. Thus, the adjacency matrices have complex eigenvalues; the eigenvectors present complex components. A quantification of the slow-down or speed-up effects of information diffusion in such temporal networks, with non-Markovian contact sequences, can be made by comparing the real time dependent (directed) network to its counterpart, the time aggregated (undirected) network, - which has real eigenvalues. In order to do so, small world networks which both contain an odd number of nodes are studied and compared to similar networks with an even number of nodes. It is found that (i) the diffusion of knowledge is more difficult on the largest networks; (ii) the network size influences the slowing-down or speeding-up diffusion process. Interestingly, it is observed that (iii) the diffusion of knowledge is slower in IDP and faster in DED communities. It is suggested that the finding can be "rationalized," if some "scientific quality" and "publication habit" is attributed to the agents, as common sense would guess. This finding offers some opening discussion toward tying scientific knowledge to belief.
引用
收藏
页数:6
相关论文
共 27 条
[1]  
[Anonymous], NOTRE DAME J LAW ETH
[2]   Analyzing and modeling real-world phenomena with complex networks: a survey of applications [J].
Costa, Luciano da Fontoura ;
Oliveira, Osvaldo N., Jr. ;
Travieso, Gonzalo ;
Rodrigues, Francisco Aparecido ;
Villas Boas, Paulino Ribeiro ;
Antiqueira, Lucas ;
Viana, Matheus Palhares ;
Correa Rocha, Luis Enrique .
ADVANCES IN PHYSICS, 2011, 60 (03) :329-412
[3]   TOWARDS A THEORY OF COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA - CONSENSUS AND ATTITUDE CHANGES IN GROUPS [J].
GALAM, S ;
MOSCOVICI, S .
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, 1991, 21 (01) :49-74
[4]   The role of inflexible minorities in the breaking of democratic opinion dynamics [J].
Galam, Serge ;
Jacobs, Frans .
PHYSICA A-STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS, 2007, 381 :366-376
[5]   Collective beliefs versus individual inflexibility: The unavoidable biases of a public debate [J].
Galam, Serge .
PHYSICA A-STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS, 2011, 390 (17) :3036-3054
[6]   Public debates driven by incomplete scientific data: The cases of evolution theory, global warming and H1N1 pandemic influenza [J].
Galam, Serge .
PHYSICA A-STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS, 2010, 389 (17) :3619-3631
[7]  
Gantmacher F. R., 2000, THEORY MATRICES, P66
[8]  
Garcia Cantu Ross A, 2009, SCIENTOMETRICS, V80, P457, DOI [10.1007/slll92-008-2065-0, DOI 10.1007/S11192-008-2065-0]
[9]   Markov chain model for turbulent wind speed data [J].
Kantz, H ;
Holstein, D ;
Ragwitz, M ;
Vitanov, NK .
PHYSICA A-STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS, 2004, 342 (1-2) :315-321
[10]   Coexistence of opposite opinions in a network with communities [J].
Lambiotte, R. ;
Ausloos, M. .
JOURNAL OF STATISTICAL MECHANICS-THEORY AND EXPERIMENT, 2007,