Why Do Opinions and Actions Diverge? A Dynamic Framework to Explore the Impact of Subjective Norms

Socio-psychological studies have identified a common phenomenon where an individual’s public actions do not necessarily coincide with their private opinions, yet most existing models fail to capture the dynamic interplay between these two aspects. To bridge this gap, we propose a novel agent-based modeling framework that integrates opinion dynamics with a decision-making mechanism. More precisely, our framework generalizes the classical Hegselmann-Krause (HK) model by combining it with a utility maximization problem. Preliminary results from our model demonstrate that the degree of opinion-action divergence within a population can be effectively controlled by adjusting two key parameters that reflect agents’ personality traits, while the presence of social network amplifies the divergence. In addition, we study the social diffusion process by introducing a small number of committed agents into the model, and identify three key outcomes: adoption of innovation, rejection of innovation, and the enforcement of unpopular norms, consistent with findings in socio-psychological literature. The strong relevance of the results to real-world phenomena highlights our framework’s potential for future applications in understanding and predicting complex social behaviors.