Complex Contagion on Hypergraphs

Simple contagion (disease) spreads via any single contact. Complex contagion (social norms, behaviors) requires multiple simultaneous exposures — a threshold. On hypergraphs, group interactions (hyperedges) can trigger cascades impossible on pairwise networks, revealing how higher-order social structure shapes collective behavior.

Network

Nodes N: 60 Pairwise edges: 80 Hyperedges (size 3): 25 Threshold θ: 2 Initial seeds: 5

Infected: 0 / 60

Generation: 0

Final spread: —

Susceptible

Newly infected

Infected

Hyperedge active