Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32641784›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2020

A network-based microfoundation of Granovetter's threshold model for social tipping.

Marc Wiedermann, E Keith Smith, Jobst Heitzig, Jonathan F Donges

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Who Talks About Flood Risks and Climate Change Adaptation? Analysis of Social Interactions in Three Countries.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Integrating evolutionary theory and social-ecological systems research to address the sustainability challenges of the Anthropocene.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Review
  5. Article
  6. Reply to Smith et al.: Social tipping dynamics in a world constrained by conflicting interests.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Marc WiedermannFutureLab on Game Theory & Networks of Interacting Agents, Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03, 14412, Potsdam, Germany. marcwie@pik-potsdam.de.
E Keith SmithGESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Member of the Leibniz Association, Unter Sachsenhausen 6-8, 50667, Cologne, Germany.
Jobst HeitzigFutureLab on Game Theory & Networks of Interacting Agents, Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03, 14412, Potsdam, Germany.
Jonathan F DongesFutureLab Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene, Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03, 14412, Potsdam, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Social tipping, where minorities trigger larger populations to engage in collective action, has been suggested as one key aspect in addressing contemporary global challenges. Here, we refine Granovetter's widely acknowledged theoretical threshold model of collective behavior as a numerical modelling tool for understanding social tipping processes and resolve issues that so far have hindered such applications. Based on real-world observations and social movement theory, we group the population into certain or potential actors, such that - in contrast to its original formulation - the model predicts non-trivial final shares of acting individuals. Then, we use a network cascade model to explain and analytically derive that previously hypothesized broad threshold distributions emerge if individuals become active via social interaction. Thus, through intuitive parameters and low dimensionality our refined model is adaptable to explain the likelihood of engaging in collective behavior where social-tipping-like processes emerge as saddle-node bifurcations and hysteresis.

Indexed as

Interpersonal RelationsModels, PsychologicalSocial BehaviorSocial NetworkingSocial TheoryHumansSocial Network Analysis

Identifiers

PMID32641784
PMCPMC7343878

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.