The Relation Between the Network Structure of the Causal Attitude Network and its Dynamics: Comment on Dalege et al. (2016)
Year: 2023
Type: preprint
Abstract: Two claims of the the Causal Attitude Network (CAN) model, published in this journal in 2016, are the topic of the present theoretical comment. The first claim was that the dynamics of change in an Ising-like attitude network, under perturbation of any one single node, can be inferred from the static network attributes of said node. The second claim was that attitude networks with Ising-like dynamics will maximize both attitudinal consistency and accuracy when within the small-world topological regime. Neither of these claims were tested in the 2016 or subsequent articles. Using a set of analytic results and simulations, we found little support for these claims. Our results have implications beyond attitude models to the the larger field of psychological networks that rose to prominence in clinical psychology over the past 15 years.
Authors: Mark Orr, Emily S. Teti
Institutions: University of Virginia, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4313648262