# Social physics

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.01866 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.01866/

## Key facts

- Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 5 Oct 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 14 of 14)

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- [Quantum Operation of Affective Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08112/) (2023)
- [Prismal view of ethics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.13370/) (2022)
- [Phase Transitions of Civil Unrest across Countries and Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08698/) (2023)
- [Discrete Versus Continuous Algorithms in Dynamics of Affective Decision Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.00357/) (2023)
- [Symmetries, Scaling Laws and Phase Transitions in Consumer Advertising Response](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02175/) (2024)
- [A Metric Hybrid Planning Approach to Solving Pandemic Planning Problems with Simple SIR Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11631/) (2024)
- [Attack Pattern Mining to Discover Hidden Threats to Industrial Control Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.04561/) (2025)
- [Echoes Before Collapse: Deep Learning Detection of Flickering in Complex Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04683/) (2025)
- [Generating consensus and dissent on massive discussion platforms with a semantic-vector model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.13932/) (2026)
- [Physics-Informed Neural Network with Adaptive Clustering Learning Mechanism for Information Popularity Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.19599/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent decades have seen a rise in the use of physics methods to study different societal phenomena. This development has been due to physicists venturing outside of their traditional domains of interest, but also due to scientists from other disciplines taking from physics the methods that have proven so successful throughout the 19th and the 20th century. Here we dub this field 'social physics' and pay our respect to intellectual mavericks who nurtured it to maturity. We do so by reviewing the current state of the art. Starting with a set of topics that are at the heart of modern human societies, we review research dedicated to urban development and traffic, the functioning of financial markets, cooperation as the basis for our evolutionary success, the structure of social networks, and the integration of intelligent machines into these networks. We then shift our attention to a set of topics that explore potential threats to society. These include criminal behaviour, large-scale migrations, epidemics, environmental challenges, and climate change. We end the coverage of each topic with promising directions for future research. Based on this, we conclude that the future for social physics is bright. Physicists studying societal phenomena are no longer a curiosity, but rather a force to be reckoned with. Notwithstanding, it remains of the utmost importance that we continue to foster constructive dialogue and mutual respect at the interfaces of different scientific disciplines.