Toward Understanding of the Social Hysteresis: Insights From Agent-Based Modeling

Hysteresis and tipping points are common features of many social systems. For example, research shows that public opinion often exhibits both phenomena. That is, opinions can seem resistant to change for a while (which is related to hysteresis), and then suddenly there's a big shift in opinion at the tipping point. In the social sciences, we use hysteresis to explain why social change can be delayed. The word "hysteresis" comes from ancient Greek and means "to lag behind. Although it was first used to talk about magnetism, it's now used in many fields, including the natural and social sciences. While it may seem to mean different things in sociology and physics, the main idea remains the same: what happens in the past affects what happens next, like a system's memory. In this talk, I'll introduce the concept of hysteresis and share some insights from statistical physics that can help us better understand it in the social sciences. Then I'll explain how we can study it using agent-based models and discuss the factors that contribute to hysteresis.