Opinion Formation Modeling By Agents With Internal Tendency

Several factors such as engagement with peer groups, government policies, personal attitudes can affect people’s opinion about a specific subject. Most of scholars in this area focus on the interaction of individuals in social network and overlook other factors. In this paper, an opinion formation model is presented in which the internal tendencies of individuals are considered as an intrinsic property. In this model, people revise their opinion based on their neighbors’ opinion, trust/distrust between them and their own internal tendency. By internal tendency we mean a set of internal factors which may affect the decision of individuals. Simulation results show that this model is able to predict individuals’ opinion which might present their preferences to different products in social network when parameters of the model are identified and assigned. As this model can predict people’s opinion in the market, it can be used in definition of a marketing or production strategy.