Strong demographic faultlines are a potential source of conflict in teams. To study conditions under which faultlines can result in between-group bi-polarization of opinions, a computational model of persuasive argument communication has been proposed. We identify two hitherto overlooked degrees of freedom in how researchers formalized the theory. First, are arguments agents communicate influencing each other’s opinions explicitly or implicitly represented in the model? Second, does similarity between agents increase chances of interaction or the persuasiveness of others’ arguments? Here we examine these degrees of freedom in order to assess their effect on the model’s predictions. We find that both degrees of freedom matter: in a team with strong demographic faultline, the model predicts more between-group bi-polarization when (1) arguments are represented explicitly, and (2) when homophily is modelled such that the interaction between similar agents are more likely (instead of more persuasive).

强大的人口过失线是团队冲突的潜在根源。为了研究断层线可能导致意见之间的两极分化的条件，提出了一种有说服力的论点交流的计算模型。在研究人员对理论进行形式化的过程中，我们确定了迄今为止被忽视的两个自由度。首先，在模型中明示或隐式表示的座席进行沟通的论点是否会影响彼此的观点？其次，行为人之间的相似性是否会增加互动的机会或他人论点的说服力？在这里，我们检查这些自由度，以评估它们对模型预测的影响。我们发现，两个自由度都很重要：在一支人口统计学特征很强的团队中，