Social connections have more than doubled over the past two decades, while societal opinions in Western countries have become increasingly polarized. Could these trends be connected?

This talk presents a computational model of opinion dynamics in social networks that exhibits a striking phase transition: above a critical level of social connectivity, society undergoes an explosive transition toward strong polarization. The model, which realistically captures homophily and social balance, explains the observed rise in polarization as a direct consequence of increased connectivity.

Introducing a small fraction of synchronized influencers changes the dynamics: the transition becomes continuous rather than explosive, but polarization emerges at even lower connectivity levels.

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