The temporal dynamics of group interactions in higher-order social networks

Iacopo Iacopini*, Márton Karsai, Alain Barrat

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Representing social systems as networks, starting from the interactions between individuals, sheds light on the mechanisms governing their dynamics. However, networks encode only pairwise interactions, while most social interactions occur among groups of individuals, requiring higher-order network representations. Despite the recent interest in higher-order networks, little is known about the mechanisms that govern the formation and evolution of groups, and how people move between groups. Here, we leverage empirical data on social interactions among children and university students to study their temporal dynamics at both individual and group levels, characterising how individuals navigate groups and how groups form and disaggregate. We find robust patterns across contexts and propose a dynamical model that closely reproduces empirical observations. These results represent a further step in understanding social systems, and open up research directions to study the impact of group dynamics on dynamical processes that evolve on top of them.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7391
Pages (from-to)7391
JournalNature Communications
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Aug 2024

Keywords

  • Humans
  • Social Networking
  • Male
  • Female
  • Child
  • Social Interaction
  • Students/psychology
  • Young Adult
  • Adolescent
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Group Processes
  • Adult

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The temporal dynamics of group interactions in higher-order social networks'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this