We study the homogeneous symmetrical threshold model with independence (noise) by pair approximation and Monte Carlo simulations on Erdős-Rényi and Watts-Strogatz graphs. The model is a modified version of the famous Granovetter's threshold model: with probability $p$ a voter acts independently, i.e., takes randomly one of two states $\pm 1$; with complementary probability $1-p$, a voter takes a given state, if a sufficiently large fraction (above a given threshold $r)$ of individuals in its neighborhood is in this state. We show that the character of the phase transition, induced by the noise parameter $p$, depends on the threshold $r$, as well as graph's parameters. For $r=0.5$ only continuous phase transitions are observed, whereas for $r>0.5$ discontinuous phase transitions also are possible. The hysteresis increases with the average degree $\langle k\rangle$ and the rewriting parameter $\beta$. On the other hand, the dependence between the width of the hysteresis and the threshold $r$ is nonmonotonic. The value of $r$, for which the maximum hysteresis is observed, overlaps pretty well with the size of the majority used for the descriptive norms in order to manipulate people within social experiments. We put the results obtained within this paper into a broader picture and discuss them in the context of two other models of binary opinions: the majority-vote and the $q$-voter model. Finally, we discuss why the appearance of social hysteresis in models of opinion dynamics is desirable.

• Received 28 February 2020
• Revised 5 May 2020
• Accepted 7 May 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.101.052316