Maximizing Diversity of Opinion in Social Networks

Abstract

We study the problem of maximizing opinion diversity in a social network that includes opinion leaders with binary opposing opinions. The members of the network who are not leaders form their opinions using the French-DeGroot model of opinion dynamics. To quantify the diversity of such a system, we adapt two diversity measures from ecology to our setting, the Simpson Diversity Index and the Shannon Index. Using these two measures, we formalize the problem of how to place a single leader with opinion 1, given a network with a leader with opinion 0, so as to maximize the opinion diversity. We give analytical solutions to these problems for paths, cycles, and trees, and we highlight our results through a numerical example.