The Physics of News, Rumors, and Opinions
18 days ago
- #social-networks
- #physics
- #misinformation
- The boundaries between physical and social networks have narrowed with the advent of the Internet.
- A complex adaptive information ecosystem has emerged where individuals and machines compete for attention, leading to collective phenomena.
- Information flow involves complex user strategies, including manipulative content and coordinated behavior, causing misinformation cascades and opinion polarization.
- Statistical physics provides a suitable framework for analyzing these dynamics on socio-technological systems.
- The review covers theoretical foundations, including complex networks and social dynamics models (e.g., epidemic and spin models).
- The modern media ecosystem is described, comparing platforms and addressing information disorders.
- The framework is applied to information spreading dynamics and opinion dynamics models (discrete, continuous, coevolutionary).
- Empirical findings and theoretical advances highlight the societal impact of physics-based investigations.