Convergence and consensus analysis of a class of best-response opinion dynamics

Abstract

Opinion dynamics aims to understand how individuals' opinions evolve through local interactions. Recently, opinion dynamics have been modeled as network games, where individuals update their opinions in order to minimize the social pressure caused by disagreeing with others. In this paper, we study a class of best response opinion dynamics introduced by Mei et al., where a parameter $α> 0$ controls the marginal cost of opinion differences, bridging well-known mechanisms such as the DeGroot model ($α= 2$) and the weighted-median model ($α= 1$). We conduct theoretical analysis on how different values of $α$ affect the system's convergence and consensus behavior. For the case when $α> 1$, corresponding to increasing marginal costs, we establish the convergence of the dynamics and derive graph-theoretic conditions for consensus formation, which is proved to be similar to those in the DeGroot model. When $α< 1$, we show via a counterexample that convergence is not always guaranteed, and we provide sufficient conditions for convergence and consensus. Additionally, numerical simulations on small-world networks reveal how network structure and $α$ together affect opinion diversity.