The strength of connectivity
Throughout this class, we have repeatedly talked about the strength of weak ties, specifically relating to the sharing of information across social media. However, it turns out there are two hypothesis’ that speculate about the spread of information about networks. One of which is one we are already fairly acquainted with: the strength of weak ties, or the fact that people seek to reduce redundancy by seeking information from “different neighborhoods”. The additional one is that because social behavior is complicated, the nodes in the network (people) often need to come in contact with multiple other nodes adopting a certain behavior before they adopt it themselves. The reasoning behind this is that “because clustered networks have more redundant ties, which provide social reinforcement for adoption, they will better promote the diffusion of behaviors across large populations.” This is similar to what we have implemented on problem set 7 on the problem that asked us to see what node would best spread the behavior.
In this study, the researcher tested diffusion by spreading a “health behavior” through a private, online social network in which each participant created an anonymous online profile including an avatar, username, and set of health interests. There were 1528 participants in this study, and each was matched with “health buddies.” Also, every time a participant adopted a behavior, they received notifications whenever others in the network also adopted the behavior.
The researcher found that “network structure had a significant effect on the dynamics of behavioral diffusion.” Topologies with greater clustering were much more effective for spreading behavior. New behaviors reached 53.77% of the clustered networks, in comparison to 38,26% of the population in random networks. The behavior also diffused more quickly in clustered networks. This is similar to the ideas which we have explored in class, specifically pertaining to whether you accept an invite to an event online. When you see others you know accepting the event and reinforcing your decision, you are more likely to go to the party. Furthermore, we have explored that when a node is connected to more nodes, it is more powerful at spreading a behavior than one which is less connected.
Sources:
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/329/5996/1194.full