Social polarization promoted by sparse higher-order interactions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a higher-order framework to study how sparse and fully connected group interactions influence social polarization, revealing that network structure and group size critically affect polarization dynamics.

Contribution

It presents a novel higher-order modeling approach that incorporates group interactions and homophily to analyze their impact on social polarization.

Findings

Group interactions amplify polarization in sparse systems.

In fully connected societies, larger groups suppress polarization.

Polarization depends on interaction structure and group size.

Abstract

Many social interactions are group-based, yet their role in social polarization remains largely unexplored. To bridge this gap here we introduce a higher-order framework that takes into account both group interactions and homophily. We find that group interactions can strongly enhance polarization in sparse systems by limiting agents' exposure to dissenting views. Conversely, they can suppress polarization in fully connected societies, an effect that intensifies as the group size increases. Our results highlight that polarization depends not only on the homophily strength but also on the structure and microscopic arrangement of group interactions.