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Wei Li is an Associate Professor in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.
PAPER TOPIC: "Dynamic Network Influence: The Art of Strategic Messaging" written along with Xu Tan (UW)
ABSTRACT: Strategic influencers send costly messages over time to persuade a network of agents, who update their opinions by averaging neighbors’ opinions and influencers’ messages. Each influencer maximizes her discounted payoff, which decreases as agents’ opinions deviate from her agenda. With a single influencer, messages are initially extreme to accelerate agenda adoption, then become more moderate as opinions converge. When multiple influencers compete, consensus arises if either the agents are symmetric (equal eigenvector centrality) or the influencers are symmetric (equal impact or equal agenda) in any network. Otherwise, competition leads to permanent disagreement, either in opinion-leader networks or when influencers’ impacts differ substantially. This disagreement results from differential targeting: stronger influencers push opinion leaders harder, while weaker ones focus more on followers. Applications include combating climate-related misinformation and shaping e-commerce strategies.
Zoom Link Available: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/84592612397