Table 1 Model variables, functions and parameters

Attributes of agent i

y_i

Attitude, a number between zero and one

r_i

Reputation, see Eq. (1)

d_i

Degree, see Eq. (1)

s_i

Size, see Eq. (1)

Main parameters

λ

Scaling of reputation with degree, see Eq. (1)

α, β

Strengths of blue and red propaganda^a

c₁

Tolerance limit for new connections^b

c₀

Tolerance limit for staying connected^b

σ

Smoothness of tolerance thresholds^b

ν₁, ν₀

Connection and disconnection rates, 0 ≤ ν₀ + ν₁ ≤ 1

μ

Mutation rate, 0 ≤ μ ≤ 1

ε

Exploration rate, 0 ≤ ε ≤ 1

s_br, s_g

Mean sizes of political and golden agents^c

Functions

Δ

Absolute value of attitude difference, \(\Delta =\left\vert {y}_{i}-{y}_{j}\right\vert\)

f(Δ; c, σ)

Dependence of link change on attitudes^b

\({w}_{ij}^{1}\), \({w}_{ij}^{0}\)

Connection and disconnection probabilities^b

Additional symbols

N_g

Number of golden agents

t

Time

\({y}_{i}^{{\prime} }\)

Attitude of agent i after attitude change^a

γ

Strength of social influence among golden agents^a

κ

Average mutation effect^a

σ_s

Standard deviation of size^c