Dogmatism and Domination: A Simulation Study

Some epistemic agents will not change their position on a claim.These are dogmatists, common creatures in our epistemic communities.This paper discusses the population-level epistemic effects of increasing numbers of dogmatists.All agents in the model are assigned a degree of belief (using a Likert-type scale) and adopt the beliefs of others in interactions.Subsets of agents are dogmatists.Analysis of model results suggests that even a modest increase in a group's dogmatists can have substantial effects on belief spread.I conclude by arguing that the model (a) helps identify two kinds of dogmatists and (b) suggests another way epistemic bubbles can form.