Social attractor
A social attractor is an attractor in the state or phase space of a society. It is a kind of pattern, structure or organizational form which we find in a social system again and again. A swarm can be described literally as an attractor: it attracts the members to a certain location. A regular meeting can be described as a kind of spatial attractor, too.
Religious systems are long-lasting social movements, they act as a social attractor which is able to hold a group together: the ritual assemblies attract the members regularly to a certain location. Religions in general can be characterized as a kind of social attractor in many ways, they are also a basic form of social organization for societies and groups.
An attractor is a set towards which a dynamical system evolves over time. What is a “social attractor” ? Perhaps a macroscopic pattern of organization or special micro-macro link which arises inevitably through repeated interactions on microscopic scale. The pattern of a “social attractor” may be considered as the character of a social group (or the personality of the person who represents the group). Depending on the preferences, likes and dislikes, people are drawn to certain groups.
A group itself can be an attractor for discussions in the group. A typical attractor for discussions and conversations in social groups are common features of the members: if a few members of a group come together and start to discuss topics, they will sooner or later start discussing certain common features and properties of the group, even if they have met originally for a completely different reason, for example a birthday, a marriage, or a death of a member:
- Neighbors will discuss the neighborhood
- Employees will discuss the company
- Relatives will discuss the family
No matter why the group members came together in the first place, in the end they discussed always something which they all had in common: for example the neighborhood, the company or the family.
