Moderate and Tolerant Groups in the Political Polarisation of Social Networks

Abstract

This paper attempts to research the minimum size which a moderate
and tolerant group of individuals should have in order to lead an
extremely intolerant and polarised social network to achieve political
consensus. It also analyses the potential effect of different structural
properties of networks (density and inequality of link distribution), and
certain individual properties (tolerance and entrenchment of political
opinions) on that minimum size. To do so, it combines agent-based
modelling and social network analysis in order to carry out virtual
experiments with artifi cial networks. The results reveal the existence of a
minimum, critical size under which political consensus is hardly ever
achieved, as well as showing that such size depends heavily on various
structural and individual properties.