Presentation on YouTube

In the talk, we examine the influence of a network structure on the opinion formation in the society where communication among agents is defined by a given network structure. An agent's opinion is assumed to be average-oriented, so it is formed by the difference with the society's average opinion and her own opinion. The communication or network structure connecting agents influences on the agent's average opinion. We introduce two types of opinion averaging: with and without decay of influence. We assume that there may be one or two centers of influence which are interested in manipulating the society's opinion. We consider the problem in dynamics with feedback information structure and find the optimal solution in case of one center of influence and the Nash equilibrium in case of two centers of influence. Our numerical simulations demonstrate theoretical results for network structures such as circles, lines and stars. (Joint work with Vladimir Mazalov and Yulia Dorofeeva)