Echo Chambers & Opinion Polarization

Bounded confidence model (Deffuant-Weisbuch) with homophilic network rewiring

Network

Opinion Distribution

Polarization Index Over Time

Controls

Confidence threshold ε 0.25 Homophily strength 0.5 Rewire rate 0.1 Agents N 60

Statistics

Clusters-

Polarization-

Mean opinion-

Std deviation-

Step0

Deffuant-Weisbuch model: Agents hold opinions x∈[0,1]. Two connected agents i,j interact only if |x_i − x_j| < ε (bounded confidence). They move toward each other: x_i += μ(x_j − x_i). Homophily: edges rewire preferentially toward agents with similar opinions, creating echo chambers. Small ε → many isolated clusters (polarization); large ε → consensus. Polarization index: variance of opinion distribution normalized by maximum possible.