Social contagion with emotional group interactions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a signed simplicial contagion model that incorporates emotional group interactions, revealing complex phase transitions and the differential impact of trust and distrust on contagion dynamics in social networks.

Contribution

The study presents a novel model integrating pairwise and group emotional interactions, analyzing their effects on contagion phenomena in signed networks.

Findings

Emotional group interactions can cause discontinuous phase transitions and hysteresis.

Increasing negative edges weakens group influence, shifting from discontinuous to continuous transitions.

Group and pairwise interactions respond differently to trust/distrust levels, affecting contagion mechanisms.

Abstract

Individual decisions and behaviors are shaped not only by direct interactions with others but also by the collective emotional dynamics within groups. In this work, we introduce the signed simplicial contagion model, integrating both pairwise and emotional group interactions to investigate contagion dynamics in signed networks. Through mean field analysis and numerical simulations, we show that emotional group interactions can induce discontinuous phase transitions, bistable behavior, and hysteresis loops. However, as the proportion of negative edges q increases, the influence of group interactions weakens under a given transmission strength, driving a shift from discontinuous to continuous phase transitions. Our findings reveal that pairwise and group interactions respond differently to changes in q: group interactions display nonlinear sensitivity, while pairwise interactions exhibit a more gradual, linear response. This divergence shifts the dominant mechanisms of contagion, depending on the levels of trust and distrust in the network, providing deeper insights into how emotional relational shape the spread of contagion in social systems.