4/4 Finally, we establish a general correspondence between our model and broader classes of competing social contagion dynamics with symmetry breaking, recovering previous results as limiting cases.

3/4 Groups induce discontinuous (explosive) transitions between fully honest and fully corrupt regimes, separated by a bistable phase!

Importantly, this abrupt behavior disappears in the pairwise limit, highlighting the destabilizing effect of group interactions.

2/4 We introduce a higher-order model to study the emergence of systemic corruption in populations where individuals interact through group structures. By including groups, we capture the influence of peer pressure in group settings.

6/6 To round off:

🚍 In itinere contagions are critical for understanding real-world epidemics in cities.

They reshapes both the magnitude and spatial profile of outbreaks—vital insights for designing effective containment strategies.

📄 Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1063/5.02...

5/6 📍It doesn't end there….in itinere contagions are also a key force behind epidemic delocalization.

We find that they precipitate a transition from localized outbreaks (confined to vulnerable patches) to a widespread propagation.

🧭 This drastically shifts the spatial epidemic landscape.

4/6 🧨 In itinere contagion counteracts 🥊 epidemic detriment – the idea that mobility (up to a critical value) suppresses epidemic spread.

We show that transit-based infections reshape this boundary, modifying the critical conditions under which mobility boosts or suppresses epidemic outbreaks.