Synchronization of disease dynamics between groups via social coupling

The spread of infectious disease is strongly influenced by social dynamics. In addition to infection risk, individuals’ vaccination decisions depend on prevailing social behavior: high infection levels and widespread vaccination can increase vaccine uptake, which in turn suppresses infection. This feedback can generate sustained oscillations in disease prevalence and vaccination behavior.

In this talk, we study two such populations undergoing the same behavioral--epidemiological limit cycle and introduce weak coupling between them through social influence. We show that coupling leads to synchronization of disease dynamics between the two groups. Depending on behavioral payoff sensitivity, the synchronized state may be either in-phase or out-of-phase. Moreover, we find that lower payoff sensitivity enhances the rate of synchronization.