Toward a unifying framework for cognitive and social aspects of belief dynamics

Mirta Galesic, Henrik Olsson, Jonas Dalege, Tamara van der Does and Daniel L. Stein, Integrating social and cognitive aspects of belief dynamics: towards a unifying framework. J. R. Soc. Interface.18: 20200857. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2020.0857

Abstract: Belief change and spread have been studied in many disciplines—from psychology, sociology, economics and philosophy, to biology, computer science and statistical physics—but we still do not have a firm grasp on why some beliefs change more easily and spread faster than others. To fully capture the complex social-cognitive system that gives rise to belief dynamics, we first review insights about structural components and processes of belief dynamics studied within different disciplines. We then outline a unifying quantitative framework that enables theoretical and empirical comparisons of different belief dynamic models. This framework uses a statistical physics formalism, grounded in cognitive and social theory, as well as empirical observations. We show how this framework can be used to integrate extant knowledge and develop a more comprehensive understanding of belief dynamics.