Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 591–646 (2009)Statistical physics of social dynamicsPublished 11 May 2009 Statistical physics has proven to be a fruitful framework to describe phenomena outside the realm of traditional physics. Recent years have witnessed an attempt by physicists to study collective phenomena emerging from the interactions of individuals as elementary units in social structures. A wide list of topics are reviewed ranging from opinion and cultural and language dynamics to crowd behavior, hierarchy formation, human dynamics, and social spreading. The connections between these problems and other, more traditional, topics of statistical physics are highlighted. Comparison of model results with empirical data from social systems are also emphasized. © 2009 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/RevModPhys.81.591
DOI:
10.1103/RevModPhys.81.591
PACS:
05.10.−a, 89.20.−a, 89.75.−k
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