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Free Information Flow Benefits Truth Seeking

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Abstract

How can we approach the truth in a society? It may depend on various factors. In this paper, using a well-established truth seeking model, the authors show that the persistent free information flow will bring us to the truth. Here the free information flow is modeled as the environmental random noise that could alter one’s cognition. Without the random noise, the model predicts that the truth can only be captured by the truth seekers who own actively perceptive ability of the truth and their believers, while the other individuals may stick to falsehood. But under the influence of the random noise, the authors strictly prove that even there is only one truth seeker in the group, all individuals will finally approach the truth.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Automation and Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Wei Su

  2. Key Laboratory of Knowledge Automation for Industrial Processes, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100083, China

    Wei Su

  3. School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Yongguang Yu

Authors
  1. Wei Su
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  2. Yongguang Yu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Su.

Additional information

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 11371049 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No. 2016JBM070.

This paper was recommended for publication by Editor HONG Yiguang.

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Su, W., Yu, Y. Free Information Flow Benefits Truth Seeking. J Syst Sci Complex 31, 964–974 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11424-017-7078-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11424-017-7078-4

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