Paths to Polarization: How Extreme Views, Miscommunication, and Random Chance Drive Opinion Dynamics

Figure 4

Results of individual model runs under different network conditions. The averages of these are shown in Figure 3. Even in the nonrandom connected caveman structure, there is variation in the final polarization for different values of . Highly polarized final states may obtain even for large . 100 trials are shown for each network condition. Solid lines indicate the average across all trials.

(a) Non-random connected caveman network

(b) Randomized connected caveman network with long-range random ties added at iteration 2000