FOCUSING OF OPINIONS IN THE DEFFUANT MODEL:: FIRST IMPRESSION COUNTS.

This paper treats the opinion dynamics of an unequal, initial opinion distribution. We simulate the Deffuant model on a directed Barabási–Albert network with discrete opinions and several subjects. We notice a focusing of the the resulting opinion distribution during the simulation towards the average value of the initial opinion distribution. A small change of the focusing is seen. A dependency of this change on the number of subjects and opinions is detected and indicates the change as a consequence of discretization of the opinions. Hereby the average value of the initial opinion distribution can be identified as the guide of opinion forming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]