Belief dynamics has an important role in shaping our responses to natural and societal phenomena, ranging from climate change and pandemics to immigration and conflicts. Researchers often base their models of belief dynamics on analogies to other systems and processes, such as epidemics or ferromagnetism. Similar to other analogies, analogies for belief dynamics can help scientists notice and study properties of belief systems that they would not have noticed otherwise (conceptual mileage). However, forgetting the origins of an analogy may lead to some less appropriate inferences about belief dynamics (conceptual baggage). Here, we review various analogies for modeling belief dynamics, discuss their mileage and baggage, and offer recommendations for using analogies in model development.

中文翻译：

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信念动态建模的类比


信念动态在塑造我们对自然和社会现象（从气候变化和流行病到移民和冲突）的反应方面发挥着重要作用。研究人员经常将他们的信念动态模型建立在与其他系统和过程（例如流行病或铁磁性）的类比之上。与其他类比类似，信念动态类比可以帮助科学家注意到和研究他们不会注意到的信念系统的属性（概念里程）。然而，忘记类比的起源可能会导致一些关于信念动态（概念包袱）的不太恰当的推论。在这里，我们回顾了信念动态建模的各种类比，讨论了它们的里程和包袱，并提供了在模型开发中使用类比的建议。