Collective decision-making and related problems of opinion formation can be mapped to the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking, with respect to the emergence of a dominant consensus opinion. Thus, over the past decades, various models of corresponding processes have been proposed that were strongly inspired – if not directly analogous – to established models for phase transitions in (equilibrium) statistical physics, such as the Ising model. Despite this past research offering important insights, several fundamental questions remain open: 1) regarding the relevance of idealized physical models (e.g., spin models) for real-world collective decision-making phenomena and their
relation to individual-level psychological mechanisms, and 2) the implication of the non-equilibrium, often non-stationary, nature of these processes for their theoretical treatment.

The aim of the workshop is to have besides presentations by participants a significant proportion of the time dedicated to discussions and collaborative work on advancing important conceptual questions in the field. Possible research questions to be addressed: Fluctuation-dissipation relations (FDR) & non-reciprocity in collective decision making; Origin of stochasticity in collective decision-making and the notion of effective temperature; Mechanisms of self-organized tuning towards/away from critical points; Theoretical treatment of non-stationary collective dynamics.