Kinetic SIS opinion-driven models with asymmetric awareness feedback: Macroscopic limit and polarization

J.P. Pinasco, Nicolas Saintier, Horacio Tettamanti and Mattia Zanella

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2026, vol. 210, issue P2

Abstract: We study a kinetic multi-agent framework coupling opinion dynamics with epidemic spreading, where individual social behavior both affects and is affected by disease transmission. Each agent is characterized by an epidemiological state and a continuous opinion variable measuring compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions. The key mechanism of the model is an asymmetric opinion update driven by epidemic encounters: infection events induce more cautious attitudes, while failed transmissions push individuals toward more extreme opinions. We focus on a prototypical SIS setting, for which we derive a macroscopic kinetic description and, in a fast social-interaction regime, a reduced system of differential equations capturing the feedback between epidemic prevalence and opinion evolution. Convergence of the reduced model is rigorously quantified through a modified Wasserstein distance. Numerical simulations highlight how infection-induced awareness and non-infection-driven extremization jointly shape collective epidemic-opinion dynamics.

Keywords: Kinetic equations; Mathematical epidemiology; Opinion dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:210:y:2026:i:p2:s0960077926008271

DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2026.118686

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