Topic · Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence

Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence is a research topic within Statistical and Nonlinear Physics. Science Explorer counts 32k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the statistical physics of opinion dynamics, focusing on social influence, bounded confidence, agent-based modeling, polarization, network dynamics, consensus formation, majority rule, homophily, and sociophysics.

Opinion Dynamics
Social Influence
Bounded Confidence
Agent-Based Modeling
Polarization
Network Dynamics
Consensus Formation
Majority Rule
Homophily
Sociophysics

Research works: 32k
In the world top 10%: 3.2k
Top-10% rate: 10.0%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: 0%
Largest producer: China

Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence

Which countries lead Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2k and 1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 China 2k works
2 United States 1k works
3 India 325 works
4 Italy 276 works
5 United Kingdom 273 works
6 Germany 246 works
7 Japan 219 works
8 France 202 works
9 Russia 183 works
10 Spain 122 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China1,960 · 40.4%United States1,044 · 21.5%India325 · 6.7%Italy276 · 5.7%6 others listed1,246 · 25.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 79 works
2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 45 works
3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 35 works
4 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 33 works
5 Wuhan UniversityChina 32 works
6 University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 30 works
7 University of Shanghai for Science and TechnologyChina 27 works
8 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 26 works
9 Jiangsu UniversityChina 25 works
10 Tsinghua UniversityChina 25 works

Who are the leading researchers in Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence include Albert Bandura, Icek Ajzen and Xiaogang Wang.

1 Albert Bandura United States 370k citations
2 Icek Ajzen United States 267k citations
3 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
4 Andrei Shleifer United States 234k citations
5 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
6 Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási United States 223k citations
7 Harry Eugene Stanley United States 198k citations
8 David A. Kenny United States 198k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence?

The most cited paper in Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence is "The Strength of Weak Ties" (Mark S. Granovetter, 1973), with 39,087 citations. Next come "Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks" (36,811) and "Fast unfolding of communities in large networks" (21,858).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	The Strength of Weak Ties Mark S. Granovetter · American Journal of Sociology	May 1973	39,087
2	Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási, Réka Albert · Science Open access	15 Oct 1999	36,811
3	Fast unfolding of communities in large networks Vincent D. Blondel, Jean‐Loup Guillaume, Renaud Lambiotte et al. · Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment Open access	Oct 2008	21,858
4	Statistical mechanics of complex networks Réka Albert, Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási · Reviews of Modern Physics Open access	30 Jan 2002	20,746
5	The Structure and Function of Complex Networks Michael E. Newman · SIAM Review Open access	2003	18,932

All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research done?

The largest centres of Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Wuhan (China).

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 BeijingChina 308 works
2 ShanghaiChina 173 works
3 NanjingChina 109 works
4 WuhanChina 107 works
5 Xi'anChina 92 works
6 TokyoJapan 92 works
7 ChengduChina 91 works
8 ParisFrance 84 works
9 MoscowRussia 78 works
10 LondonUnited Kingdom 76 works

See Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence on the map

Where is the best place to study Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence?

Among universities, judged by research, Jiangsu University, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and Stanford University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged

40%

Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share

10%

Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale

30%

Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%

10%

Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad

10%

Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	Jiangsu UniversityChina	74.6	28.6%	5.7×	25	+57.7%
2	University of Shanghai for Science and TechnologyChina	70.2	23.4%	11.3×	27	+61.4%
3	Stanford UniversityUnited States	64.9	20.0%	2.4×	20	+35.9%
4	University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina	64.2	26.4%	4.8×	30	-22.1%
5	Chongqing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina	60.6	25.1%	11.6×	18	+11.1%
6	Sapienza University of RomeItaly	60.2	15.5%	3.5×	23	+96.1%
7	Southwest UniversityChina	60.0	32.7%	4.5×	13	+26.8%
8	Beijing Normal UniversityChina	59.9	13.4%	5.8×	26	+74.3%
9	Lanzhou University of TechnologyChina	58.7	16.0%	12.4×	22	+79.4%
10	Wuhan UniversityChina	58.6	9.5%	4.1×	32	+76.5%
11	Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina	57.3	16.3%	3.5×	22	+53.1%
12	Fudan UniversityChina	56.4	16.8%	2.6×	23	+20.6%
13	Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina	55.7	23.2%	2.6×	23	+0.8%
14	Princeton UniversityUnited States	55.2	16.0%	6.4×	16	+11.5%
15	Tiangong UniversityChina	55.1	38.2%	6.4×	8	-
16	University of AmsterdamNetherlands	53.5	12.7%	5.4×	18	+4.9%
17	Islamic Azad University, TehranIran	52.7	14.4%	2.1×	19	+47.0%
18	Communication University of ChinaChina	52.0	8.4%	38.1×	22	+36.5%
19	Southwestern University of Finance and EconomicsChina	51.5	18.6%	13.0×	10	+123.4%
20	Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina	51.2	20.3%	1.9×	19	+27.4%
21	University of OxfordUnited Kingdom	50.5	14.5%	2.4×	18	-34.0%
22	Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States	50.3	16.1%	5.2×	20	-27.0%
23	Politecnico di TorinoItaly	50.3	6.1%	6.8×	17	+80.0%
24	University of California, BerkeleyUnited States	49.9	12.7%	2.7×	14	+11.6%
25	Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina	49.6	27.2%	3.0×	15	+1.0%
26	Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States	49.1	8.6%	9.0×	21	-27.9%
27	Salesian UniversityMexico	48.8	8.6%	761.7×	20	-
28	Peking UniversityChina	48.4	11.1%	1.7×	19	+34.2%
29	Tsinghua UniversityChina	48.3	9.5%	1.9×	25	+4.3%
30	Cornell UniversityUnited States	48.1	8.7%	2.6×	19	-10.6%
31	University of WarwickUnited Kingdom	47.4	8.5%	5.6×	14	+64.1%
32	KTH Royal Institute of TechnologySweden	47.2	10.6%	5.5×	12	+164.0%
33	Bar-Ilan UniversityIsrael	46.9	4.0%	9.0×	14	+25.8%
34	Lanzhou UniversityChina	46.8	19.0%	3.7×	14	+9.0%
35	National University of Defense TechnologyChina	46.5	7.8%	7.6×	32	-21.8%
36	Sun Yat-sen UniversityChina	46.3	14.2%	1.5×	18	+10.8%
37	Shanghai UniversityChina	46.2	22.4%	3.1×	12	+13.6%
38	Hangzhou Normal UniversityChina	45.6	19.9%	6.6×	9	+115.2%
39	New York UniversityUnited States	45.2	12.4%	2.6×	17	-13.4%
40	University of GroningenNetherlands	44.6	6.7%	3.7×	14	-14.4%
41	Chongqing UniversityChina	44.6	26.2%	1.6×	10	+26.3%
42	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	44.2	13.4%	1.6×	14	+0.3%
43	Xinjiang UniversityChina	44.1	21.6%	3.5×	8	+69.0%
44	University of Hong KongChina	43.7	18.3%	1.8×	10	+34.6%
45	Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore	42.3	17.4%	2.8×	12	-23.3%
46	Harvard UniversityUnited States	42.1	24.5%	0.6×	10	-27.1%
47	Beijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina	41.4	5.6%	7.0×	25	-18.3%
48	ETH ZurichSwitzerland	39.4	5.5%	3.8×	14	-41.7%
49	École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland	38.4	3.7%	5.2×	12	+130.8%
50	Shanghai University of Finance and EconomicsChina	38.2	10.1%	18.4×	10	+147.2%
51	City University of Hong KongChina	37.0	9.9%	3.3×	10	-35.1%
52	Xihua UniversityChina	36.8	13.0%	10.0×	9	+71.0%
53	University of PennsylvaniaUnited States	36.7	24.7%	1.7×	10	-41.4%
54	University of Science and Technology LiaoningChina	33.4	3.8%	18.1×	11	+280.6%
55	University of WashingtonUnited States	33.3	21.6%	1.4×	9	-26.7%
56	Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom	33.1	7.8%	1.7×	9	+12.6%
57	Chinese University of Hong KongChina	32.7	16.6%	2.4×	10	-21.3%
58	Shandong Normal UniversityChina	31.3	8.5%	10.0×	14	-29.3%
59	National University of SingaporeSingapore	26.3	11.9%	1.4×	9	-21.8%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence, country by country

Is Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 0% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2018.

grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.030% in 2024.

Fractional works of Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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Which countries lead Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence?

What are the most cited papers in Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence?

Where is Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where is the best place to study Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence?

Is Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion