2008/07/03 by Antal, Miklos, Balogh, Laszlo
#Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0807.0517
Evolution of belief systems has always been in focus of cognitive research. In this paper we delineate a new model describing belief systems as a network of statements considered true. Testing the model a small number of parameters enabled us to reproduce a variety of well-known mechanisms ranging from opinion changes to development of psychological problems. The self-organizing opinion structure showed a scale-free degree distribution. The novelty of our work lies in applying a convenient set of definitions allowing us to depict opinion network dynamics in a highly favorable way, which resulted in a scale-free belief network. As an additional benefit, we listed several conjectural consequences in a number of areas related to thinking and reasoning.