Effect of behavioral changes on epidemic spreading in coupled simplicial activity driven networks

Abstract

Abstract Despite intensive studies on the epidemic spreading problem in social networks, both intra-group and inter-group interactions are represented as dyadic links. In this study, using coupled simplicial activity driven networks, we examine the impact of behavioral modification on epidemic propagation while taking into account various intra-group and inter-group interactions. The intra-group interactions are represented as simplicial structures, while the inter-group connections are represented as pairwise links. Two distinct types of behavioral changes are considered: (i) infected individuals decrease their activity due to self-quarantine, (ii) susceptible individuals limit their contacts due to self-protection. Numerical simulation and theoretical analysis reveal that both self-quarantine and self-protection behavior can effectively suppress epidemic spreading, leading to increased thresholds of epidemics and reduced steady-state fractions of infected individuals. Increasing the simplex size will lead to less protective effect of these behavioral changes, while enhancing pairwise connections between groups will not decrease the effect of behavioral changes.