Continuous Social Networks:

In this seminar, Julián Chitiva presented the results of a research project developed during his PhD, titled “Continuous Social Networks: Modeling Opinion Dynamics and Lobby Influence in Large-Scale Societies.” The work is a collaboration with Professor Xavier Bénézit (Sapienza University of Rome) and addresses two central questions:

1. How do opinions evolve within large-scale populations that interact over time?
2. How can strategic actors (lobbies) influence these opinion dynamics effectively?

To tackle these questions, the speaker introduces an innovative framework that combines:

• Continuous social network models (an extension of discrete graph theory to infinite populations),
• The classical DeGroot model of opinion updating, and
• A new game-theoretical model of lobbying, where strategic agents influence societal beliefs.