{
  "id": 5540943,
  "title": "A computational model explains the sudden rise in societal division",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/04/a-computational-model-explains-the-sudden-rise-in-societal-division",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-09-04T11:00:34.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PsyPost",
    "slug": "psypost",
    "url": "https://www.psypost.org/the-hidden-cost-of-increased-social-connectivity/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "As communication technology has doubled close social ties maintained by people, societies have become deeply divided politically. A computational model simulating human behavior shows that having more connections past a certain point forces communities to split into polarized echo chambers. This research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that political polarization has skyrocketed in the United States and other Western nations over the past two decades. During this period, the average number of close friendships individuals report nearly doubled, coinciding with the rise of smartphones and mass social media networks around 2008. Researchers Stefan Thurner, Markus Hofer, and Jan Korbel noticed this parallel timing and wanted to test if the sheer volume of social connections was driving the ideological divide. They focused on homophily, the tendency to seek out like-minded individuals, and social balance, how groups of three people naturally seek comfortable relationships. In a virtual society, each individual had a mathematical profile representing binary political stances on various topics. Connections were either positive or negative based on shared or opposing stances. The model randomly flipped political stances and calculated the new level of cognitive dissonance for each individual. If lowering overall social stress, individuals kept the new stance; otherwise, they rejected it. As individuals updated their views, relationships shifted to maintain social balance. Simulations showed a tipping point, or phase transition, when average connections surpassed five. The virtual society became highly polarized, with individuals holding nearly identical opinions within massive groups and entirely opposite views between groups. Introducing rigid influencers with unchanging stances changed the tipping point, making the transition gradual instead of sudden. The model's results matched real-world survey data, accurately predicting the timing and magnitude of the polarization spike that occurred after 2010. The mathematical rules of homophily and social balance, combined with increasing social ties, produced the polarization trend without needing external factors.",
  "summary": "A new computational model reveals that simply increasing the number of close social connections past a certain threshold naturally forces society to splinter into deeply divided, polarized echo chambers.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}