# Statistical Physics Of Opinion Formation: is it a SPOOF?

## TL;DR

This paper reviews the intersection of statistical physics and social psychology in opinion formation, highlighting models, methods, and potential future research directions within the SPOOF framework.

## Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of SPOOF, connecting physics models with social psychology, and discusses analytical methods and future research opportunities.

## Key findings

- Relations between physics and social psychology models are established.
- Examples of studies inspired by social psychology are presented.
- Analytical methods like effective force and phase transition analysis are summarized.

## Abstract

We present a short review based on the nonlinear $q$-voter model about problems and methods raised within statistical physics of opinion formation (SPOOF). We describe relations between models of opinion formation, developed by physicists, and theoretical models of social response, known in social psychology. We draw attention to issues that are interesting for social psychologists and physicists. We show examples of studies directly inspired by social psychology like: "independence vs. anticonformity" or "personality vs. situation". We summarize the results that have been already obtained and point out what else can be done, also with respect to other models in SPOOF. Finally, we demonstrate several analytical methods useful in SPOOF, such as the concept of effective force and potential, Landau's approach to phase transitions, or mean-field and pair approximations.