Modeling and Visualization Individual and Collective Opinions towards Extremism in a Society

Abstract The present work is an attempt to approach the modeling and visualization of individual opinion towards extremism in a society. We consider a scenario where two opposite concepts are on a dispute for exclusivity, via the effort of the individuals to convince each other of their own oppinion/decision. The power of convincement of each individual over the community depends on its influence, its communicability and on the enthusiasm (extremism) it defends its side. Here we propose a model taking these three factors into consideration. We analyze the system changes in real time by following the agent's extremism parameter of the society, representing its distribution in a graphical fashion and present realizations of the proposed model for a variety of initial configurations (input parameter sets). The results analysis suggest that the most important factor is influence more then the number of individuals defending a position. Moreover, communicability has small or no relevance. Visualization schemes for following individuals interactions are also included.