How does the heterogeneity of members affect the evolution of group opinions? (Q2657460)

Summary: Understanding the impact of heterogeneity on the evolution of group opinions can enlighten us on how to effectively organize, redesign, and improve decision-making efficiency. This article explores mainly the effects of heterogeneity on the evolution of group opinions. It is found that the heterogeneity of individuals' openness has an important influence on the ability to aggregate group opinions. According to the average amount of clusters and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) under different network structures, heterogeneity often improves the ability. In addition, for the small-world network and random network, there is little difference in the aggregation ability from both the average amount of clusters and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. While for the regular network, the ability is obviously weaker than that of the other two. This result also shows that the randomness of interaction between members will enhance the cohesion of a group.