Regensburg 2022 – scientific programme

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 5: Social Systems, Opinion and Group Dynamics

SOE 5.2: Talk

Monday, September 5, 2022, 12:45–13:00, H11

Social nucleation: Group formation as a phase transition — Frank Schweitzer and •Georges Andres — ETH Zürich, Chair of Systems Design, Switzerland

The spontaneous formation and subsequent growth, dissolution, merger, and competition of social groups bear similarities to physical phase transitions in metastable finite systems. In this talk, I will examine three different scenarios, percolation, spinodal decomposition, and nucleation, to describe the formation of social groups of varying size and density. In an agent-based model, I will present a feedback between the opinions of agents and their ability to establish links. Groups can restrict further link formation, but agents can also leave if costs exceed the group benefits. I will show how to identify the critical parameters for costs and benefits and social influence to obtain either one large group or the stable coexistence of several groups with different opinions. Analytic investigations then allow to derive different critical densities that control the formation and coexistence of groups. This approach sheds light on the much-neglected early stage of network growth and the emergence of large connected components.