Observatorio de I+D+i UPM

Descripción
Political polarization is a social phenomenon that has several consequences in peoples' lives and whose nature is not completely understood. We say that a population is perfectly polarized when divided in two groups of the same size and opposite opinions. Here, we propose a methodology to study and measure the emergence of polarization from social interactions. We begin by proposing a model to estimate opinions in which a minority of influential individuals propagate their opinions through a social network. The result of the model is an opinion probability density function. Next, we propose an index to quantify the extent to which the resulting distribution is polarized. Finally, we apply the proposed methodology to a Twitter conversation about the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, finding a good agreement between our results and offline data. Hence, we show that our methodology can detect different degrees of polarization, depending on the structure of the network. We demonstrate that the polarization in social media emerges from the influence of opinion leaders that dominate interactions.
Internacional	No
Nombre congreso	XX Congreso de Física Estadística (FisEs15) [http://fises15.gefenol.es/]
Tipo de participación	970
Lugar del congreso	Badajoz (España)
Revisores	Si
ISBN o ISSN	CDP08UPM
DOI
Fecha inicio congreso	05/10/2015
Fecha fin congreso	07/10/2015
Desde la página	7
Hasta la página	7
Título de las actas	Actas del congreso [http://fises15.gefenol.es/static/files/Libro_Abstracts_FisEs15.pdf]

Esta actividad pertenece a memorias de investigación

• Autor: Juan Carlos Losada Gonzalez (UPM)
• Autor: Francisco Javier Borondo Benito (UPM)
• Autor: Rosa Maria Benito Zafrilla (UPM)
• Autor: Alfredo Morales Guzmán (UPM)

• Creador: Grupo de Investigación: Grupo de Sistemas Complejos
• Departamento: Ingeniería Agroforestal