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Mean-Field Game Modeling the Bandwagon Effect with Activation Costs

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Abstract

This paper provides a mean-field game theoretic model of the bandwagon effect in social networks. This effect can be observed whenever individuals tend to align their own opinions to a mainstream opinion. The contribution is threefold. First, we describe the opinion propagation as a mean-field game with local interactions. Second, we establish mean-field equilibrium strategies in the case where the mainstream opinion is constant. Such strategies are shown to have a threshold structure. Third, we extend the use of threshold strategies to the case of time-varying mainstream opinion and study the evolution of the macroscopic system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Trento, Via Sommarive 14, 38050, Povo-Trento, Italy

    Fabio Bagagiolo

  2. Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK

    Dario Bauso

  3. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, Gestionale, Informatica, Meccanica, Università di Palermo, V.le delle Scienze, 90128, Palermo, Italy

    Dario Bauso

  4. Dipartimento di Management, Università “Ca’Foscari” Venezia, 30121, Cannaregio, Venezia, Italy

    Raffaele Pesenti

Authors
  1. Fabio Bagagiolo
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  2. Dario Bauso
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  3. Raffaele Pesenti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabio Bagagiolo.

Additional information

This work was supported by the 2012 “Research Fellow” Program of the Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Trento.

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Bagagiolo, F., Bauso, D. & Pesenti, R. Mean-Field Game Modeling the Bandwagon Effect with Activation Costs. Dyn Games Appl 6, 456–476 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13235-015-0167-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13235-015-0167-x

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