Overcoming the rich-get-richer phenomenon
With the start-up culture in the modern world, we see so many companies trying to become “the next big thing”. Yet, as we saw in class with the rich-get-richer phenomenon, there is a clear tendency for customers to choose the current big name brands over the smaller company products. This interesting article gives us insight […]
Bayes’ Theorem Applications
http://www.askamathematician.com/2011/10/q-what-is-bayes-rule-and-how-do-i-use-it-in-daily-life/ In this forum, a mathematician discusses the various ways Bayes’ Theorem can be used to properly calculate the chances of some event occurring given some evidence. The author states that people tend to fall victim to the base rate fallacy. An exemplification of this would be if I told you that breathalyzers […]
Product Reviews on Amazon
How many times have you purchased a product off Amazon with no reviews? What about less than 10 reviews, when there were similar products to choose from with over 100 reviews? I’m willing to bet never, or never again. Product reviews are taken seriously by sellers, buyers, and Amazon itself due to their importance in […]
Don’t Follow the Crowd on Black Friday!
The traditional beginning of the holiday season happens the day after Thanksgiving. That day has been given the nickname, Black Friday, and it has for a long time been seen as the day with the biggest sales. Often crowds will line up the night before to get into the store first to get the limited […]
Network, then Profit
Lately, we’ve been discussing network effects, where wider usage adds values. You might be inclined to purchase something, but that inclination might be increased if you know a lot of other people who have that good or service. This is how things become popular, like the recent rising fidget spinner trend, or why if people […]
The Science Behind Memes
Meme (noun): an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual or another by nongenetic means, especially imitation. So what makes memes so catchy? The reason behind which memes get chosen to go viral and which remain unseen seems arbitrary. However, it could be explained […]
The Rich Get Richer in Social Media
http://www.freshminds.net/2010/02/the-matthew-effect-linking-and-how-things-become-viral-in-social-media/ https://unionmetrics.com/blog/2016/08/when-a-tweet-goes-viral/ These articles describes how content goes viral on the Internet. The first one discusses how Page Rank and links can increase a content’s popularity. Basically, the more links that are directed to the content, the greater chance the content has of going viral. It also discusses how popular content will continue to rise […]
Bayesian Atheism
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-bayess-theorem-an/ Perhaps one of the biggest questions we have ever pondered as a human race is the existence of a god. And while both sides of the argument employ various forms of evidence and rhetoric to affirm or deny the presence of an omniscient deity, some members of the academic and scientific community have […]
Black Friday: Cascades of Price and Information
Article: http://cameras.reviewed.com/features/herd-mentality-not-deals-drives-black-friday-frenzy The Friday following Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, has typically been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., and most major retailers open very early and offer promotional sales. This drop in price causes massive shopper turnout, but are the low prices the sole reason for the crazy […]
Understanding Asian-American Cuisine’s Rise and Triumph Through Information Cascades
In this magazine article, Ligaya Mishan talks about her research and personal experience in Asian-American history, specifically cuisine, after talking to Asian-American chefs and writing on the food across the nation. The columnist starts off talking about the early plight of Asian-Americans and the criticism they received on their cooking and living spaces – specifically […]
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