A Networked SIS Epidemic--Opinion Model with Higher-Order Interactions

Abstract

This paper studies a susceptible--infected--susceptible (SIS) epidemic model coupled with opinion dynamics over a network of communities with higher-order interactions. Unlike standard networked SIS models, which account only for pairwise transmission, the proposed model incorporates group-level infection mechanisms and feedback between epidemic prevalence and community opinions. We establish local stability and instability conditions for a particular healthy equilibrium, derive a sufficient condition for global exponential eradication of the infection state, and identify conditions under which higher-order interactions induce bistability in the reduced dynamics on a positively invariant synchronous set. These results characterize how higher-order interactions alter the dynamics of opinion-dependent epidemic systems. Numerical simulations illustrate the predicted eradication, bistable, and endemic regimes.