Homophily-Based Social Group Formation in a Spin Glass Self-Assembly Framework
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Homophily-Based Social Group Formation in a Spin Glass Self-Assembly Framework. / Korbel, Jan; Lindner, Simon D.; Pham, Tuan Minh; Hanel, Rudolf; Thurner, Stefan.
In: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 130, No. 5, 057401, 30.01.2023.Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Homophily-Based Social Group Formation in a Spin Glass Self-Assembly Framework
AU - Korbel, Jan
AU - Lindner, Simon D.
AU - Pham, Tuan Minh
AU - Hanel, Rudolf
AU - Thurner, Stefan
PY - 2023/1/30
Y1 - 2023/1/30
N2 - Homophily, the tendency of humans to attract each other when sharing similar features, traits, or opinions, has been identified as one of the main driving forces behind the formation of structured societies. Here we ask to what extent homophily can explain the formation of social groups, particularly their size distribution. We propose a spin-glass-inspired framework of self-assembly, where opinions are represented as multidimensional spins that dynamically self-assemble into groups; individuals within a group tend to share similar opinions (intragroup homophily), and opinions between individuals belonging to different groups tend to be different (intergroup heterophily). We compute the associated nontrivial phase diagram by solving a self-consistency equation for "magnetization" (combined average opinion). Below a critical temperature, there exist two stable phases: one ordered with nonzero magnetization and large clusters, the other disordered with zero magnetization and no clusters. The system exhibits a first-order transition to the disordered phase. We analytically derive the group-size distribution that successfully matches empirical group-size distributions from online communities.
AB - Homophily, the tendency of humans to attract each other when sharing similar features, traits, or opinions, has been identified as one of the main driving forces behind the formation of structured societies. Here we ask to what extent homophily can explain the formation of social groups, particularly their size distribution. We propose a spin-glass-inspired framework of self-assembly, where opinions are represented as multidimensional spins that dynamically self-assemble into groups; individuals within a group tend to share similar opinions (intragroup homophily), and opinions between individuals belonging to different groups tend to be different (intergroup heterophily). We compute the associated nontrivial phase diagram by solving a self-consistency equation for "magnetization" (combined average opinion). Below a critical temperature, there exist two stable phases: one ordered with nonzero magnetization and large clusters, the other disordered with zero magnetization and no clusters. The system exhibits a first-order transition to the disordered phase. We analytically derive the group-size distribution that successfully matches empirical group-size distributions from online communities.
KW - SIMPLE-MODEL
KW - DYNAMICS
KW - FRAGMENTATION
KW - SYSTEMS
KW - BALANCE
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.057401
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.057401
M3 - Letter
C2 - 36800470
VL - 130
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
SN - 0031-9007
IS - 5
M1 - 057401
ER -
ID: 341011813