SKM 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SYOF: Symposium Dynamics of Opinion Formation – From Quorum Sensing to Polarization

SYOF 1: Dynamics of Opinion Formation – From Quorum Sensing to Polarization

SYOF 1.1: Hauptvortrag

Montag, 27. März 2023, 09:30–10:00, HSZ 01

Towards understanding of the social hysteresis -- insights from statistical physics — •Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron — Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland

Hysteresis and tipping points are common features found in many complex social and psychological systems. For example, empirical studies suggest that public opinion demonstrates both of these phenomena, where it appears to be unresponsive to change (related to hysteresis) and then suddenly shifts abruptly at the tipping point. Hysteresis is used in social science to explain the inflexibility of change and is seen as a slow response of society to new issues, even when they are acknowledged by experts. From a statistical physics point of view, hysteresis is associated with first-order (discontinuous) phase transitions. This has led us to investigate what factors promote discontinuous phase transitions in models of opinion dynamics. We have been working on this subject for the last 10 years, focusing mainly on the q-voter model which is particularly attractive both from a theoretical and social point of view. In the first part of the lecture I will briefly review these results, and discuss which results are particularly relevant from the point of view of social sciences.

Someone might ask why physicists are concerned with social systems. Probably the first answer that comes to mind is that the methods and concepts of statistical physics can also be useful in the social sciences. But is feedback possible? During the lecture I will show that result obtained within the model originally proposed to describe social opinion dynamics can go beyond the state of the art in physics.