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Adaptive behaviors neutralize bistable explosive transitions in higher-order contagion

Marco Mancastroppa1,*, Márton Karsai2, and Alain Barrat1

  • *Contact author: marco.mancastroppa@cpt.univ-mrs.fr
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APS Open Sci. 1, L000054 – Published 1 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1sgn-k3fk

Abstract

During contagion phenomena, individuals perceiving a risk of infection commonly adapt their behavior and reduce their exposure. The effects of such adaptive mechanisms have been studied for processes in which pairwise interactions drive contagion. However, contagion and the perception of infection risk can also involve (“higher-order”) group interactions, leading potentially to new phenomenology. How adaptive behavior resulting from risk perception affects higher-order processes remains an open question. Here, we consider the impact of several risk-based adaptive behaviors on pairwise and higher-order contagion processes, using numerical simulations and an analytical mean-field approach. For pairwise contagion, adaptive mechanisms based on local (pairwise or group-based) risk perception impact only the endemic state, without affecting the epidemic phase transition. For higher-order contagion processes, instead, the adaptivity defuses the impact of nonlinear group interactions: This reduces or even completely suppresses the parameter range in which bistability is possible, effectively transforming a higher-order contagion process into a pairwise one.

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Higher-order adaptive behaviors outperform pairwise strategies in mitigating contagion dynamics

Marco Mancastroppa, Márton Karsai, and Alain Barrat
Phys. Rev. E 114, 014302 (2026)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

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Outline

Information

APS Open Sci. 1, L000054– Published 1 July, 2026
Vol. 1
  • Received 6 February 2026
  • Revised 29 April 2026
  • Accepted 13 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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