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Dryad

Mitigating opinion polarization in social networks using adversarial attacks

Abstract

The proliferation of social networking services has facilitated the formation of echo chambers, where similar opinions are amplified, leading to increased opinion polarization. While much research has focused on the conditions that lead to opinion polarization, methods to mitigate it remain underexplored. This study investigates the potential of using adversarial attacks to reduce opinion polarization in social networks. By introducing small, strategic perturbations to the weights of network links, we conducted numerical simulations to observe the effects on opinion dynamics. Our results indicate that these perturbations can effectively mitigate opinion polarization, with the strength of the effect increasing alongside the perturbation parameter. Moreover, larger networks exhibited enhanced effectiveness in polarization mitigation. This research presents a novel approach to controlling opinion dynamics and offers insights into preventing the detrimental effects of polarization in social media environments.