A General Social Agent-Based Model of Opinion Dynamics with Applications to STEM Education and Radicalization

Abstract

Many aspects of our society are affected by how opinions change and ideology spreads (e.g., interest in STEM and political radicalization), but the underlying processes are not well understood. Previous attempts at modeling these phenomena have suffered from a lack of empirical data and/or insufficient grounding in social-psychological theory. Moreover, the field of opinion dynamics would benefit from a broader view of the discipline that captures the commonalities between different domains.