Modelling consumers decision-making process about excluding products as a result of mutual influence

We present a model for the evolution of opinion distribution in a society with respect to two excluding concepts or choices A and B. It is considered a situation where two excluding concepts are on a dispute for exclusivity, through the consecutive interactions among the consumers, one trying to persuade the other of their position. The strength of influence of each consumer over those it relates with, depends on its social status as well as the enthusiasm (extremism degree) it defends its side. Here we propose a model taking these factors into consideration using an approach based on agents. Each agent is equipped with a fixed social status, as well as a variable position with respect to the two concepts. They are put to interact among themselves, following a rule such that the change an agent imposes to the other is proportional to the persuader status and its degree of decision (opinion) for one or other concept. This makes the position of the interacting agents to vary in time. We then analyse the tendencies of consumers opinion as a whole as time passes, for a variety of initial configurations, to see what the final stationary results and how fast they are attained. We found that extremism was always the final state of society opinion, that is, with all consumers opting for the same product, with an extreme (maximum) degree of decision. Also, we conclude that the most important factor for deciding which choice wins, and how fast, is the ratio between the status averages of both groups, the one of those more convinced of A and the one of those more convinced of B. In fact, the group with the larger social status average wins the other even in significant initial disadvantages in number of individuals or in average degree of conviction.