Understanding social fragmentation in a Hamiltonian approach

Like many social phenomena, the formation of individuals` opinions within a society emerges as a result of the complex interactions within friendship-, communication-, or other types of social networks. This happens through a dynamic process in which opinions and the respective network simultaneously co-evolve and influence each other. We currently witness a societal fragmentation where individuals cooperate within groups but become increasingly hostile between groups. While modern social media are often attributed as a cause for this fragmentation, and so called filter bubbles or echo chambers are believed to have a negative impact on opinion formation processes in democracies, its details and dynamics remain largely unknown. We want to clarify the main driving forces behind social fragmentation within the framework of physics-inspired opinion formation models. We propose a model of a toy society that incorporates two fundamentals of social dynamics, opinion formation based on copying opinions of others, and structural social balance, meaning e.g. that my friends friend is my friend. Similar models in physics show phase transitions. They correspond with a rapid change within the system, e.g. the change from ice to water when temperature increases. Similarly to temperature, there are critical parameters that separate a homogenous society from a fragmented one. In this project, we try to find such parameters to better understand, when a society is expected to disintegrate into rivaling groups, impeding democratic decision processes. A main observation is that the increase of communication processes within the population could be involved in the fragmentation process. We want to uncover this possibility within the project.