Influence of Temporal Aspects and Age-Correlations on the Process of Opinion Formation Based on Polish Contact Survey

On the basis of the experimental data concerning interactions between humans the process of Ising-based model of opinion formation in a social network was investigated. In the paper the data concerning human social activity, i.e. frequency and duration time of interpersonal interactions as well as age correlations - homophily are presented in comparison to base line homogeneous, static and uniform mixing. Recent research suggests that real (temporal and assortative) patterns can both speed up or slow down processes (like epidemic spread) on the networks. Also in our study, a real structure of contacts affects processes of opinion formation in various non-intuitive ways. The real patterns (correlation and dynamics) reduce 'freezing by heating' effect for small social temperature values. Moreover, our research shows that the cross interactions between contact frequency and its duration impose the significant increase in critical temperature.