Economics Research Seminar Series: Sebastiano Della Lena

Group Antagonism, Social Learning, and Opinion Dynamics. Dr. Sebastiano Della Lena, Monash University. 

We study opinion dynamics in a balanced social structure consisting of two groups. Agents learn about the true state of the world by interacting with their neighbors and by listening to a source of information. They want to conform to the opinions of the other agents in the same group, but reject the opinions of the agents from the other group. We characterize the long-run opinions and show that the agents’ long-run opinions depend on either their weighted Katz-Bonacich centrality or eigenvector centrality in the signed network of opinion exchange, which allows for both positive and negative links. We also study the effect of group size, the weight given to unbiased information, and homophily when agents in the same group are homogeneous.

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Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.