Coevolutionary Dynamics of Group Interactions: Coevolving Nonlinear Voter Models

Abstract: We survey the coevolutionary dynamics of network topology and group interactions in opinion formation, grounded on a coevolving nonlinear voter model. The coevolving nonlinear voter model incorporates two mechanisms: group interactions implemented through nonlinearity in the voter model and network plasticity demonstrated as the rewiring of links to remove connections between nodes in different opinions. We show that the role of group interactions, implemented by the nonlinearity can significantly impact both the dynamical outcomes of nodes' state and the network topology. Additionally, we review several variants of the coevolving nonlinear voter model considering different rewiring mechanisms, noise of flipping nodes' state, and multilayer structures. We portray the various aspects of the coevolving nonlinear voter model as an example of network coevolution driven by group interactions, and finally, present the implications and potential directions for future research.