Social Crystallization
This requires visible signals, explicit thresholds, and positive feedback mechanisms near the threshold.
For weeks, the campaign existed in a liquid state - individuals signaling interest independently, uncoordinated. As the threshold approached, positive feedback locked in. At the threshold, the phase transition completed: from independent purchase intentions to one coordinated production commitment.
Social crystallization describes the rapid transition from disordered individual action to synchronized collective behavior, triggered when population density crosses a critical threshold. The concept derives from physical crystallization where individual molecules remain liquid until a seed crystal forms, then the entire solution rapidly crystallizes.
In quorum sensing with positive feedback, once a few cells cross the threshold and activate quorum responses (including increased autoinducer production), they rapidly push the entire population over the threshold. The result is abrupt, coordinated transitions from individual to collective behavior - populations exist in OFF (individual) or ON (collective) states with rapid switching at threshold.
Business Application of Social Crystallization
Organizations can engineer social crystallization by creating conditions where diffuse individual interest rapidly transforms into coordinated collective action once critical mass is reached. This requires visible signals, explicit thresholds, and positive feedback mechanisms near the threshold.