Asynchronous Opinion Dynamics with Online and Offline Interactions in Bounded Confidence Model

Nowadays, about half of the world population can receive information and exchange opinions in online environments (e.g. the Internet), while the other half do so offline (e.g. face to face). The speed at which information is received and opinions are exchanged in online environment is much faster than offline. To model this phenomenon, in this paper we consider online and offline as two subsystems in opinion dynamics and assume asynchronization when agents in these two subsystems update their opinions. We unfold that asynchronization has a strong impact on the steady-state time of the opinion dynamics, the opinion clusters and the interactions between online and offline subsystems. Furthermore, these effects are often enhanced the larger the size of the online subsystem is.