ABSTRACT
Our opinions and beliefs are increasingly affected by social media. Within a network, opinions possibly drive community/ies towards essential choices.
We analyze how to model the dynamic process of updating opinions based on the opinions of neighbours and, indirectly, on other individual opinions. We will consider the case of attention to the neighbour behaviour that is invariant over time and the (methodologically) harder case in which attention towards others changes according to unexpected events that may occur.
Also, opinion dynamics, investigating the fusion process of the opinion formation, is a powerful tool for supporting the management of public opinion.
We will focus on opinion formation among individuals and the resulting dynamics it induces in a social network. After a review of state of the art, the necessary and sufficient tools for building an own model are illustrated. Several applications and in particular related to transportation and mobility conclude the chapter.
