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Higher-order interactions shape collective human behaviour

Nature Human Behaviour volume 9, pages 2441–2457 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Traditional social network models focus on pairwise interactions, overlooking the complexity of group-level dynamics that shape collective human behaviour. Here we outline how the framework of higher-order social networks—using mathematical representations beyond simple graphs—can more accurately represent interactions involving multiple individuals. Drawing from empirical data including scientific collaborations and contact networks, we demonstrate how higher-order structures reveal mechanisms of group formation, social contagion, cooperation and moral behaviour that are invisible in dyadic models. By moving beyond dyads, this approach offers a transformative lens for understanding the relational architecture of human societies, opening new directions for behavioural experiments, cultural dynamics, team science and group behaviour as well as new cross-disciplinary research.

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Fig. 1: Higher-order representations of social network data.
Fig. 2: Collaboration hypergraph from affiliation data.
Fig. 3: Temporal face-to-face contact hypergraphs.
Fig. 4: Higher-order models of group formation.
Fig. 5: Models of social contagion.
Fig. 6: Multiplayer games on hypergraphs.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Lotito for helping with the curation of the arXiv dataset as well as for discussions regarding the computational challenges of higher-order networks. F.B. acknowledges support from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through the project 10.55776/PAT1052824 and 10.55776/PAT1652425, and from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA8655-22-1-7025. F.K. acknowledges ERC Starting grant no. 101165497. A.B.M. acknowledges SNSF grant number:10001620. A.S. acknowledges support from project PID2022-141802NB-I00 (BASIC) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ‘ERDF A way of making Europe’, and from grant MapCDPerNets—Programa Fundamentos de la Fundación BBVA 2022. M.P. acknowledges support from the Slovenian Research Agency (grant no. P1-0403).

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  1. Department of Network and Data Science, Central European University, Vienna, Austria

    Federico Battiston & Onkar Sadekar

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Valerio Capraro

  3. Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Fariba Karimi

  4. Complexity Science Hub, Vienna, Austria

    Fariba Karimi

  5. DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Sune Lehmann

  6. Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Sune Lehmann

  7. Human Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Andrea Bamberg Migliano

  8. Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos, Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganés, Spain

    Angel Sánchez

  9. Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Angel Sánchez

  10. Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

    Matjaž Perc

  11. Community Healthcare Center Dr. Adolf Drolc Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

    Matjaž Perc

  12. Department of Physics, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Matjaž Perc

  13. University College, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Matjaž Perc

Authors
  1. Federico Battiston
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  2. Valerio Capraro
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  3. Fariba Karimi
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  4. Sune Lehmann
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  5. Andrea Bamberg Migliano
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  6. Onkar Sadekar
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  7. Angel Sánchez
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  8. Matjaž Perc
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Contributions

F.B. and M.P. conceived the idea. F.B. and O.S. conceptualized the figures and data analysis for the box. O.S. created the figures and analysed the empirical dataset for the box. All authors contributed to writing, editing and reviewing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Federico Battiston.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Human Behaviour thanks Francisco Rodrigues, Anzhi Sheng and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Battiston, F., Capraro, V., Karimi, F. et al. Higher-order interactions shape collective human behaviour. Nat Hum Behav 9, 2441–2457 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02373-5

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