Skip to main content



Following AND Leading in an Information Cascade

  Information cascades were a recent topic discussed. An information cascade arises when the information that you can infer from the choices of others may be more powerful than your own private information, in which case it would in fact make sense for you to join others regardless of your own private information. People inevitably […]

Variants on market matchings: Chess tournament pairings and the stable roommates problem

Eija Kujansuu from the University of Tampere in Tampere, Finland proposes an alternative pairing method for chess tournaments. Although at first glance, generating tournament matchups may appears as simple as pairing individuals of similar ability, the problem is actually more complicated due to further constraints imposed upon the matchups by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs […]

Fake Quotes on the Internet and their Cascading Effect

Due to the massive vitality of social media, information can spread incredibly quickly. This power is applied unadulterated to any type of information, whether it be false or not. Before we look at a specific situation, let’s first imagine what a twitter information cascade looks like. Let’s imagine each person on twitter has 500 followers. For […]

Plants Have the Best Strategies When It Comes to Evolutionary Game Theory

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-theory-smart-evolution-global-ecosystems.html Normally, when someone thinks of an ecosystem, they don’t think of flora and fauna; they only think of fauna. This is because animals are active: they move around and change their environment, and therefore influence the habitat they live in. But who says plants don’t affect their environment? Researchers and Princeton University used evolutionary […]

Negative Side of Information Cascades

Information cascades in social networks can have a very positive impact: the dissemination of news in times of emergency, for example, can help people seek shelter or protection. They can, however, have a very negative impact as well: the spreading of misinformation. People make decisions based on the decisions of others; they tend to believe a […]

“SEISMIC: A Self-Exciting Point Process Model for Predicting Tweet Popularity.” 

In this paper, author presents us a new social phenomenon that we call social information diffusion by a cascading behavior of re-sharing post of one post. Social network website like Facebook, twitter allow user to post, comment, and share post; and to understand such social phenomenon, it is important to analyze this in term of […]

Evolutionarily Stable Strategies in Polarization of Politics

In class and on homework we studied evolutionarily stable strategies in a number of different contexts. First, and most obviously, we saw them in the context of biological evolution. There are countless fascinating articles online showing evolutionarily stable traits that species have evolved over time. For example, developing cheek pads for male orangutans is an […]

Information Cascades in the Brain

The human brain is prone to information cascades.  Studies have shown that people who receive inside information tend to change their behavior more than would be justified by the information alone.  This effect is due to an information cascade in the brain.  Getting special private information can make you feel special, and your brain might […]

Predicting Epidemics Using Social Networks

In 2010, Nicholas Christakis gave a fascinating TED talk about how we might use social networks predict epidemics before they happen.  He compares this hypothetical advanced warning to the current system of epidemic information gathering used by the CDC.  By compiling data from doctors and reporters in various regions about how many patients are sick, […]

Children’s Card Games: Modeling Trading Card Games as a Diffusion in Innovation

Collectible card games have steadily gained traction in the past 20 years and have now become a viable business with a large network of dedicated consumers. Different games may vary in game play, but their success is all based on a direct benefit effect. Due to the nature of card games, the trading card game […]

« go backkeep looking »

Blogging Calendar

December 2015
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Archives