Timescale-induced synchronization of contrarians in adaptive dynamical networks
Phys. Rev. E 114, 044310 – Published 13 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/v1vq-skr1
Abstract
From the firing of neurons to the formation of social consensus, the interplay between conformist and contrarian behaviors regulates collective dynamics. We unravel how adaptation timescales induce distinct synchronization behaviors in mixed populations of conformists and contrarians. While slow adaptation leaves contrarians in a persistent state of incoherence, fast adaptation traps them into a scaffold formed by conformists, stabilized by rapid feedback from the evolving network structure, leading to the emergence of synchronized clusters. Notably, contrarians are entrained only within an intermediate coupling window and require a conformist majority. We analytically reduce a low-dimensional description using a collective coordinate approach and demonstrate that a conformist majority and a threshold adaptation rate are necessary conditions for contrarians to synchronize in adaptive networks, which agrees well with numerical simulations. Our results highlight the critical role of adaptation timescales in reshaping collective behaviors in mixed populations, offering insights into consensus formation and polarization in adaptive social networks.
