MODELING HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN COMPLEX SOCIAL AND SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS

Modeling diffusion of innovation and social diffusion

We studied social diffusion and diffusion of innovation. In particular, we focused on the important social-psychological role of sensitivity to dynamic norms (i.e., emerging trends at the population level), and we investigated it through experimental studies and analytically-tractable models. Then, we use our model to investigate different intervention policies to facilitate social diffusion:

• Ye M., Zino L., Risselada H., Bolderdijk J. W., Mlakar Z., Fennis B. M., and Cao M., Collective patterns of social diffusion are shaped by individual inertia and trend-seeking. Nature Communications, 12, 5698, 2021

• Zino L., Ye M., and Cao M., On modeling social diffusion under the impact of dynamic norms. Proceedings of the 60th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Dec 2021, Austin TX, US

• Zino L., Ye M., and Cao M., Facilitating innovation diffusion in social networks using dynamic norms. PNAS Nexus, 1(5), pgac229, 2022

• Zino L. and Ye M., On incentivizing innovation diffusion in a network of coordinating agents. Proceedings of the 22nd IFAC World Congress, Jul 2023, Yokohama, Japan.

• Gao T., Zino L., Ye M., Effect of network structure and committed minority placement in promoting social diffusion. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 11(2), 2326-2339, 2024.

For more details on social diffusion, we suggest to read the following book chapter:

• Zino L. and Cao M., Social Diffusion Dynamics in Cyber-Physical-Human Systems, in Cyber-Physical-Human Systems: Fundamentals and Applications (ed. A. Annaswamy et al.), pp. 43-70, Wiley, 2023

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We developed a co-evolutionary models to study the interwined evolution of opinions and actions and elucidate important aspects of social systems, such as the emergence of polarization and unpopular but supported norms:​

• Zino L., Ye M., and Cao M., A two-layer model for coevolving opinion dynamics and collective decision-making in complex social systems. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, 30, 083107, 2020

• Zino L., Ye M., and Cao M., A Coevolutionary Model for Actions and Opinions in Social Networks. Proceedings of the 59th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Dec 2020, Jeju Island, Republic of Korea

• Dehghani Aghbolagh H., Ye M., Zino L., Chen Z., and Cao M., Coevolutionary Dynamics of Actions and Opinions in Social Networks. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 68(12), 7708-7723, 2023

We developed a game-theoretic model with enviromental feedback to study human decision-making concerning enviromental issues:

• Frieswijk K., Zino L., A.S. Morse, and M. Cao, Modeling the Co-evolution of Climate Impact and Population Behavior: A Mean-Field Analysis. Proceedings of the 22nd IFAC World Congress, Jul 2023, Yokohama, Japan.

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We developed an opinion-dynamics model to study collective risk perception: 

• Zino L., D. Vilone, F. Giardini, and M. Cao, On Modeling Collective Risk Perception via Opinion Dynamics. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2024 European Control Conference, Jun 2024, Stockholm, Sweden.

We developed an epidemic-like model to study diffusion of innovation on networks:

• Fagnani F. and Zino L., Diffusion of innovation in large scale graphs: a mean field analysis. Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, Jul 2016, Minneapolis MN, US

• Fagnani F., and Zino L., Diffusion of innovation in large scale graphs. IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, 4(2), 100–111, 2017

We collaborated with researchers and scientists from different fields to develop models of human behavior in different applied contexts, from robot motion to pro-enviromantal change:​

• Nakayama S., Krasner E., Zino L., and Porfiri M., Social information and spontaneous emergence of leaders in human groups. Journal of the Royal Society: Interface, 16(151), 2019

• Hoffmann T., Ye M., Zino L., Cao M., Rauws W., and Bolderdijk J.W., Overcoming Inaction: An Agent-Based Modelling Study of Social Interventions that Promote Systematic Pro-Environmental Change. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 94, 102221, 2024.