Statistical mechanics of collective behavior: Macro‐sociology

The spatial and temporal evolution of collective behavior in large populations is simulated with a cellular automaton model and predicted with a statistical mechanical analytical theory of macro‐sociological behavior. The numerical cellular automaton simulations show that the type of collective behavior observed in a group depends sensitively on the group's social temperature with consensus more likely at higher temperatures and fragmented pockets of majority and minority opinions at lower temperatures. An analytical derivation using a mean field approximation confirms this behavior and also identifies a critical social temperature (T, ≈ 1) above which organized collective behavior disappears. Using social forces as well as social temperatures, the statistical mechanical theory predicts existing macro‐sociological data on collective behavior.

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Corresponding author. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Campus Box 450, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309–0450, USA.

E. Passerini was supported by National Science Foundation Grant CMS‐9312647 at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.