Social Physics: Uncovering Human Behaviour from Communication

TL;DR

This paper reviews how large-scale mobile phone data analysis, termed Social Physics, reveals insights into human social behavior, communication patterns, mobility, and daily rhythms, complementing traditional research methods.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of data analytics and modeling techniques in Social Physics using mobile phone datasets to understand human sociality.

Findings

Reveals patterns in human communication and mobility

Identifies daily and weekly rhythms in social behavior

Highlights the potential of digital footprints for social science research

Abstract

In the post year 2000 era the technologies that facilitate human communication have rapidly multiplied. While the adoption of these technologies has hugely impacted the behaviour and sociality of people, specifically in urban but also in rural environments, their "digital footprints" on different data bases have become an active area of research. The existence and accessibility of such large population-level datasets, has allowed scientists to study and model innate human tendencies and social patterns in an unprecedented way that complements traditional research approaches like questionnaire studies. In this review we focus on data analytics and modelling research - we call Social Physics - as it has been carried out using the mobile phone data sets to get insight into the various aspects of human sociality, burstiness in communication, mobility patterns, and daily rhythms.