Nonequilibrium phase transitions in a racism-spreading model with interaction-driven dynamics

TL;DR

This paper models the spread of racist content in social networks using a three-state system, revealing phase transitions and the influence of network topology on societal polarization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel three-state model for racism spread, analyzing phase transitions on different network types with both differential equations and agent-based simulations.

Findings

Identifies three stationary regimes: two absorbing and one active.

Characterizes phase transitions between regimes.

Shows network topology impacts the emergence of absorbing states.

Abstract

Racism remains a persistent societal issue, increasingly amplified by the structure and dynamics of online social networks. In this work, we propose a three-state compartmental model to study the spreading and suppression of racist content, drawing from epidemic-like dynamics and interaction-driven transitions. We analyze the model on fully-connected (homogeneous mixing) networks using a set of coupled differential equations, and on Barab\'asi-Albert (BA) scale-free and Watts-Strogatz (WS) small-world networks through agent-based simulations. The system exhibits three distinct stationary regimes: two racism-free absorbing states and one active phase with persistent racist content. We identify and characterize the phase transitions between these regimes, discuss the role of network topology, and highlight the emergence of absorbing states. Our findings illustrate how statistical physics tools can help uncover the macroscopic consequences of microscopic social interactions in digital environments.