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Epidemic models are widely used to mimic social activity, such as spreading of rumors or panic. Simultaneously, models of excitable media are traditionally used to simulate the propagation of activity. Spreading of activity in the virtual community was simulated within two models: the SIRS epidemic model and the Wiener – Rosenblut model of the excitable media. We used network versions of these models. The network was assumed to be heterogeneous, namely, each element of the network has an individual set of characteristics, which corresponds to different psychological types of community members. The structure of a virtual network relies on an appropriate scale-free network. Modeling was carried out on scale-free networks with various values of the average degree of vertices. Additionally, a special case was considered, namely, a complete graph corresponding to a close professional group, when each member of the group interacts with each. Participants in a virtual community can be in one of three states: 1) potential readiness to accept certain information; 2) active interest to this information; 3) complete indifference to this information. These states correspond to the conditions that are usually used in epidemic models: 1) susceptible to infection, 2) infected, 3) refractory (immune or death due to disease). A comparison of the two models showed their similarity both at the level of main assumptions and at the level of possible modes. Distribution of activity over the network is similar to the spread of infectious diseases. It is shown that activity in virtual networks may experience fluctuations or decay.

A mass congestion of people always represents a potential danger and threat for their lives. In addition, every year in the world a very large number of people die because of the crush, the main cause of which is mass panic. Therefore, the study of the phenomenon of mass panic in view of her extreme social danger is an important scientific task. Available information, about the processes of her occurrence and spread refers to the category inaccurate. Therefore, the theory of fuzzy sets has been chosen as a tool for developing a mathematical model of the mechanism of transmitting panic state among people with various temperament species.

When developing an fuzzy model, it was assumed that panic, from the epicenter of the shocking stimulus, spreads among people according to the wave principle, passing at different frequencies through different environments (types of human temperament), and is determined by the speed and intensity of the circular reaction of the mechanism of transmitting panic state among people. Therefore, the developed fuzzy model, along with two inputs, has two outputs — the speed and intensity of the circular reaction. In the block «Fuzzyfication», the degrees of membership of the numerical values of the input parameters to fuzzy sets are calculated. The «Inference» block at the input receives degrees of belonging for each input parameter and at the output determines the resulting function of belonging the speed of the circular reaction and her derivative, which is a function of belonging for the intensity of the circular reaction. In the «Defuzzyfication» block, using the center of gravity method, a quantitative value is determined for each output parameter. The quality assessment of the developed fuzzy model, carried out by calculating of the determination coefficient, showed that the developed mathematical model belongs to the category of good quality models.

The result obtained in the form of quantitative assessments of the circular reaction makes it possible to improve the quality of understanding of the mental processes occurring during the transmission of the panic state among people. In addition, this makes it possible to improve existing and develop new models of chaotic humans behaviors. Which are designed to develop effective solutions in crisis situations, aimed at full or partial prevention of the spread of mass panic, leading to the emergence of panic flight and the appearance of human casualties.

The paper addresses the problem of modeling the formation and propagation of panic states in social groups with relatively stable structures of interpersonal interactions. Panic is interpreted as a nonlinear process of emotional contagion arising from the interaction between individual psychological characteristics and collective effects within a social environment. In contrast to models focused on the spatial dynamics of moving crowds, the proposed approach concentrates on quasi-stationary interaction networks that reflect informational and emotional contacts among individuals.

The developed discrete network dynamical system integrates individual temperament parameters (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic), the structure of social connections, and nonlinear mechanisms of collective behavior. The individual dynamics of panic are described using an S-shaped growth function, which ensures boundedness of the emotional arousal level and captures the stages of its formation and saturation. Social influence is modeled on a graph of interpersonal interactions (an Erdos –Renyi random network) through local contacts between individuals.

Additionally, the model incorporates the effects of collective contagion and avalanche-like amplification driven by the average panic level in the group, as well as a baseline stress factor depending on group size. Numerical simulation is implemented in a discrete iterative form, allowing for the analysis of both individual and group panic trajectories. A quantitative indicator of the panic propagation rate is introduced, defined by the time required for the group to reach a state close to full panic.

A comparative analysis of heterogeneous and homogeneous groups is conducted, demonstrating that group heterogeneity significantly accelerates panic propagation due to inter-temperament interactions: highly excitable individuals act as initiators of emotional contagion, while more stable individuals partially dampen its dynamics. The evaluation of the model quality using the coefficient of determination shows a high degree of consistency within the simulation data.

The practical significance of the work lies in the potential application of the model for analyzing the resilience of social groups to panic states, assessing risks at mass events, and developing intelligent systems for monitoring collective behavior. Future research directions include extending the model to account for directed and dynamic networks, as well as its calibration based on empirical data.