Narrow Results

A new model is proposed, in the context of Axelrod's model for the study of cultural dissemination, to include an external vector field (VF) which describes the effects of mass media on social systems. The VF acts over the whole system and it is characterized by two parameters: a nonnull overlap with each agent in the society and a confidence value of its information. Beyond a threshold value of the confidence, there is induced monocultural globalization of the system lined up with the VF. Below this value, the multicultural states are unstable and certain homogenization of the system is obtained in opposite line up according to that we have called negative publicity effect. Three regimes of behavior for the spread process of the VF information as a function of time are reported.

From five parameters at the state level: percentage of Catholic adherents (CATH-ADH), average number of adherents per congregation (ADH/CON), number of congregations per capita (CON/POP) and voting percentages from the 2020 election for Trump (TRUMP) and Biden (BIDEN), we obtain six Pearson correlation coefficients at the national and regional levels. These yield a significant positive correlation between CATH-ADH and BIDEN, as well as for ADH/CON and BIDEN, while the opposite is true for TRUMP. Conversely, there is a negative correlation between CON/POP and BIDEN and a positive one for TRUMP. The interplay between these, as well as important geographical and confessional spatial autocorrelations measured using Moran’s index, show the influence of religion on the 2020 election among two main lines: Catholic support for Biden and Trump support from atomized yet smaller congregations.

How can we solve problems in the society that cause socio economic crises such as the one of 2008? Here we introduce the subject of this special issue, ‘physics of societies’, dealing with a general introduction to the subject, and the particular special issue projects’ presentation, explaining why this subject is important to the scientific community and to the society, what are the problems that we can deal better using these approaches, and what can be suggested to do next in practice. We emphasize the strength of physics of socio-economic systems to treat problems in nations that are not solved with other approaches, and that these results can indeed affect the people, in particular with intervention schemes that support creating managed organizations, including support from socio-economic-organizations, for instance.

In this review, work from three centuries of biophysical economics is presented, starting from the physiocrats’ early work in biophysical economics in 1755, to the most recent modeling of modern societies with approaches from biophysics and physics, to explain the wealth distribution, opinions and power structures in societies and nations. At the same time, we are also dealing with generalizations, in particular, how to define and create fairness in nations. The general conclusions emphasize the strength of socio-econo-physics in explaining nations, also in comparison to the other approaches, due to the unbiased starting points and diversity in methods. The results emphasize that fairness is increased with citizens’ activities that create smoother income distributions and improving the flow of opportunities in the nation. Fairness also fights unjust socio-economic biases and suggests advancing citizens-managed organizations.