Title: The evolution of pluralistic ignorance

Abstract: Pluralistic ignorance is a social-psychological phenomenon characterized by individuals privately maintaining beliefs or opinions that diverge from what they perceive to be the prevailing norm within a group or society. Typical models are based on opinion dynamics involving both private and public states, where agents' binary states undergo changes influenced by social pressure. However, these models overlook a crucial aspect of pluralistic ignorance: if the absence of behavioral expression matches the normative status of the behavior, social pressure exerted by the initial group configuration is enough to induce pluralistic ignorance. Here, we show that pluralistic ignorance is maintained if imitation of others is not too frequent and the social influence of the initial minority is high. Interestingly, the individuals are able to overcome the pluralistic ignorance by the end of interactions, yet it resurfaces at the outset of each subsequent group interaction. However, if the likelihood of individuals imitating others becomes excessively high, pluralistic ignorance completely dissipates in an undesirable manner: individuals internalize the dysfunctional behavior. We also show that, if memory is added to the internalization process, pluralistic ignorance reaches high levels only for intermediate imitation rates.