The Effect of Influencers on Societal Polarization

Societies can polarize when there is disagreement on important issues. The rise of social media in recent years has led to the phenomenon of influencers, who are now prominent in public debate, especially online. However, their effect on polarization is not well understood. To address this gap in knowledge, we create an Agent-Based Model of a society into which an influencer is introduced and their effect on polarization observed. Results show that an influencer holding extreme views will always increase the rate of polarization, with this effect increasing in line with their reach and activity level. The effect of a neutral influencer varies with the tolerance for opposing beliefs in the society: slowing the rate of polarization for relatively tolerant societies, but increasing the rate when societies are more conservative, or the influencer has narrow reach. Consequently, these results have implications for the design of influencer campaigns for social good.