2025/09/02 by Pradhan, Amit, Pratik Mullick, Mullick, Pratik +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #FOS: Physical sciences #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.01982
openalex publication_date 2025/09/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate the role of contrarians in a recently proposed weighted-influence variant of the q-voter model. In this framework, non-unanimous influence groups affect the focal agent through weighted contributions governed by a bias parameter p. We extend this setting by introducing a fraction α (α> 0) of contrarians, defined as agents who systematically oppose the prevailing influence irrespective of whether the group is unanimous or divided. Analytical mean-field calculations and Monte Carlo simulations reveal that the final states of the system are governed by simple phase boundaries: regions of positive and negative majority separated by the lines p=1/2 and α=1/2, with equally-mixed states confined to these boundaries. While low contrarian densities are insufficient to overturn the bias, higher values of α systematically drive the system closer to a balanced coexistence of opinions, though exact parity is prevented by the presence of bias p. We further analyze the temporal relaxation of opinions and extract the characteristic timescales of convergence. Our findings highlight how contrarians, acting as structured non-conformists, can suppress consensus and maintain opinion diversity, while internal biases ultimately hinder a perfectly even split.