Eur. Phys. J. B (2014) 87: 55
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2014-41088-3

Regular Article

Voter model with arbitrary degree dependence: clout, confidence and irreversibility

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, H3A0E9 Montréal, Québec, Canada

^a e-mail: babak.fotouhi@mail.mcgill.ca

Received: 19 December 2013
Received in final form: 1 February 2014
Published online: 5 March 2014

Abstract

The voter model is widely used to model opinion dynamics in society. In this paper, we propose three modifications to incorporate heterogeneity into the model. We address the corresponding oversimplifications of the conventional voter model which are unrealistic. We first consider the voter model with popularity bias. The influence of each node on its neighbors depends on its degree. We find the consensus probabilities and expected consensus times for each of the states. We also find the fixation probability, which is the probability that a single node whose state differs from every other node imposes its state on the entire system. In addition, we find the expected fixation time. Then two other extensions to the model are proposed and the motivations behind them are discussed. The first one is confidence, where in addition to the states of neighbors, nodes take their own state into account at each update. We repeat the calculations for the augmented model and investigate the effects of adding confidence to the model. The second proposed extension is irreversibility, where one of the states is given the property that once nodes adopt it, they cannot switch back. This is motivated by applications where, agents take an irreversible action such as seeing a movie, purchasing a music album online, or buying a new product. The dynamics of densities, fixation times and consensus times are obtained.