Noise-Induced Truth Seeking of Heterogeneous Hegselmann-Krause Opinion Dynamics

In this paper, we study the noise-induced truth seeking for heterogeneous Hegselmann-Krause (HK) model in opinion dynamics. It has been proved that small noise could induce the group to achieve truth in homogeneous HK model; however, for the more practical heterogeneous HK model, the theoretical conclusion is absent. Here, we prove that small noise could also induce the group to achieve truth in heterogenous HK model, and, moreover, we first theoretically prove that large noise could drive some agents to deviate from the truth. These theoretical findings evidently reveal how the free information flow spreading in the media determines the social truth seeking.