English

DeGroot-Friedkin Map in Opinion Dynamics is Mirror Descent

Optimization and Control 2019-02-19 v3 Machine Learning Systems and Control

Abstract

We provide a variational interpretation of the DeGroot-Friedkin map in opinion dynamics. Specifically, we show that the nonlinear dynamics for the DeGroot-Friedkin map can be viewed as mirror descent on the standard simplex with the associated Bregman divergence being equal to the generalized Kullback-Leibler divergence, i.e., an entropic mirror descent. Our results reveal that the DeGroot-Friedkin map elicits an individual's social power to be close to her social influence while minimizing the so called "extropy" -- the entropy of the complimentary opinion.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1812.11293,
  title  = {DeGroot-Friedkin Map in Opinion Dynamics is Mirror Descent},
  author = {Abhishek Halder},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.11293},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T06:58:36.139Z