A Constraint Opinion Model

This paper introduces a generalized opinion model that extends the standard DeGroot model by representing agents’ opinions and influences as soft constraints rather than single real values. This allows for modeling scenarios beyond the scope of the DeGroot model, such as agents sharing partial information and preferences, engaging in discussions on multiple topics simultaneously, and representing opinions with different degrees of uncertainty. By considering soft constraints as influences, the proposed model captures also situations where agents impose conditions on how others’ opinions are integrated during belief revision. Finally, the flexibility offered by soft constraints allows us to introduce a novel polarization measure that takes advantage of this generalized framework.