Agent‐based modeling approach for group polarization behavior considering conformity and network relationship strength

Summary Currently, group behaviors happen frequently with the development of network technology. As a typical social group behavior, group polarization has been attracted more and more academic attention due to its significant disturbance to public's daily lives. At present, the classic J‐A (proposed by Jager and Amblard) and D‐W (proposed by Deffuant and Weisbuch) models are used to analyze group polarization process. However, the main shortcomings existing in these models are that the individuals' psychology and their network relationships are rarely considered. In order to overcome the limitations, this article integrates the influence factors such as conformity and network relationship strength integrated into the polarization model. Besides, the BA (proposed by Barabasi and Albert) network model is used as the agent adjacency model due to its closer to the real social network structure. Subsequently, the experimental simulations are carried out with the multi‐agent Monte‐Carlo method so as to testify the efficiency and effectiveness. The results indicate that different information interaction modes have essential influence on group attitude polarization. Moreover, conformity parameters and the intensity of relationship have dual impacts on both speeding up and slowing down the polarization process.