Expressed and Private Opinion Dynamics with Group Pressure and Liberating Effect

This paper introduces the liberating effect under group pressure into the Hegselmann-Krause (HK) model and proposes a novel expressed and private opinion dynamics model. Agents in the group hide their honest opinions because of the group pressure, and each agent has a private and expressed opinion. The liberating effect is divided into two stages. In the first stage, one agent in the group is the first to liberate when the number of times it feels pressure exceeds a specific limit and the cumulative pressure is the maximum. The liberating agent will express its opinion authentically, with private opinion consistent with the expressed opinion. In the second stage, the other agents in the group are influenced by the liberating neighbors and also liberate until the group evolution reaches a stable state. Through simulations, we study the effects of confidence level and pressure threshold on group opinion evolution. The experimental results show that both confidence level and pressure threshold are critical. All agents liberate when they are smaller than the critical value; when they are greater than the critical value, the liberating effect disappears. We also find that the liberating effect can accelerate the group opinion evolution.