Recent trends in socio-epidemic modelling: behaviours and their determinants

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Proverbio, Daniele, Tessarin, Riccardo, Giordano, Giulia
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Proverbio, Daniele
Tessarin, Riccardo
Giordano, Giulia
author_facet Proverbio, Daniele
Tessarin, Riccardo
Giordano, Giulia
contents The spreading dynamics of infectious diseases is influenced by individual behaviours, which are in turn affected by the level of awareness about the epidemic. Modelling the co-evolution of disease transmission and behavioural changes within a population enables better understanding, prediction and control of epidemics. Here, our primary goal is to provide an overview of the most popular modelling approaches, ranging from compartmental mean-field to agent-based models, with a particular focus on how behavioural factors are incorporated into epidemic dynamics. We classify modelling approaches based on the fundamental conceptual distinction between models of behaviours and models of behavioural determinants (such as awareness, beliefs, opinions, or trust); in particular, we observe that most studies model and interpret the variables related to individual responses either as behaviours or as determinants, with the implicit assumption that they correlate linearly. Based on preliminary empirical observations, we then challenge this assumption by analysing a recent dataset about time series of social indicators, collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine the case study of Italian regions and we discover that behavioural responses are poorly explained by awareness, beliefs or trust, thereby calling for a careful interpretation of the modelling assumptions and for the development of further models, which fully account for the inherent complexity of individual responses and human behaviours.
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publishDate 2025
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spellingShingle Recent trends in socio-epidemic modelling: behaviours and their determinants
Proverbio, Daniele
Tessarin, Riccardo
Giordano, Giulia
Physics and Society
Populations and Evolution
The spreading dynamics of infectious diseases is influenced by individual behaviours, which are in turn affected by the level of awareness about the epidemic. Modelling the co-evolution of disease transmission and behavioural changes within a population enables better understanding, prediction and control of epidemics. Here, our primary goal is to provide an overview of the most popular modelling approaches, ranging from compartmental mean-field to agent-based models, with a particular focus on how behavioural factors are incorporated into epidemic dynamics. We classify modelling approaches based on the fundamental conceptual distinction between models of behaviours and models of behavioural determinants (such as awareness, beliefs, opinions, or trust); in particular, we observe that most studies model and interpret the variables related to individual responses either as behaviours or as determinants, with the implicit assumption that they correlate linearly. Based on preliminary empirical observations, we then challenge this assumption by analysing a recent dataset about time series of social indicators, collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine the case study of Italian regions and we discover that behavioural responses are poorly explained by awareness, beliefs or trust, thereby calling for a careful interpretation of the modelling assumptions and for the development of further models, which fully account for the inherent complexity of individual responses and human behaviours.
title Recent trends in socio-epidemic modelling: behaviours and their determinants
topic Physics and Society
Populations and Evolution
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13837