When Few Appear As Many: The Impact of Influencers on the Majority Illusion

Mladenova, Natalie O. (2025) When Few Appear As Many: The Impact of Influencers on the Majority Illusion. Bachelor's Thesis, Artificial Intelligence.

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Abstract

This paper investigates how highly connected nodes (influencers) affect the Majority Illusion, particularly when they hold a minority opinion. The Majority Illusion describes a phenomenon where a minority view appears dominant to many individuals based on the structure of their local network. Using simulations on Barabási–Albert (BA) networks, this study explores how the number of influencers and the size of the minority opinion affect both the emergence and persistence of the illusion. Three different minority-to-majority ratios (10%, 30%, and 40%) were tested across 200 network simulations each. Results show that more influencers consistently increase the initial strength of the illusion. However, whether the illusion persists depends heavily on the size of the minority: small minorities fail to sustain the illusion, while moderate ones often lock it in, and larger minorities may even reverse it entirely. These findings highlight how network structure and opinion dynamics together shape public perception.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Christoff, Z.L. and Los, M.D.
Degree programme:	Artificial Intelligence
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	17 Jul 2025 10:35
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2025 10:35
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/36342

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