# Interplay between social influence and competitive strategical games in multiplex networks

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a multiplex network model coupling social influence and evolutionary game dynamics across different layers, revealing how their interaction can promote cooperation and polarization in social dilemmas.

## Contribution

It presents a novel framework modeling social influence and game dynamics as interconnected layers, demonstrating their impact on cooperation and polarization.

## Key findings

- Coupling social influence with game dynamics promotes cooperation.
- Network structure influences the level of cooperation and polarization.
- Related layers can lead to polarized metastable states.

## Abstract

We present a model that takes into account the coupling between evolutionary game dynamics and social influence. Importantly, social influence and game dynamics take place in different domains, which we model as different layers of a multiplex network. We show that the coupling between these dynamical processes can lead to cooperation in scenarios where the pure game dynamics predicts defection. In addition, we show that the structure of the network layers and the relation between them can further increase cooperation. Remarkably, if the layers are related in a certain way, the system can reach a polarized metastable state.These findings could explain the prevalence of polarization observed in many social dilemmas.