Information Spreading in Social Networks
http://theconversation.com/modelling-social-networks-reveals-how-information-spreads-18776
Even though the way we communicate has changed drastically with the introduction of the internet, people have continued to use the same methods to spread information, and that our social networks play an important role in influences our decisions. This article suggests a neutral model to explain how information spreads through a social network in situations where there is no particular advantage to choosing between two options. In a neutral model, most people simply copy the behavior of their connections.
An experiment was run to demonstrate this model where, in a network of 40 people, “Three people were each given a coloured card and were given the role of the ‘seed’. Their task was to convince as many of their peers as possible to take up their colour, so that they would subsequently spread it further through the network.” In this experiment, there was no advantage or disadvantage to choosing certain colors, so by the end of this experiment the network was comprised of about evenly-divided clusters of colors.
However, in a different version of the experiment, everyone was given the incentivized with a prize if they were part of the most widespread color. In this case, they to trade with other people to switch to their color. By the end of the experiment, almost everyone ended up with the same color.
These experiments demonstrate diffusion in networks. The second experiment resembles the network coordinate game, where each color has a certain payoff, depending on what trade the ‘seed’ offers, as well as what everyone else chooses. If everyone picks the same color, then the chance that they win the payoff is higher; the color that a person chooses will depend on the colors that their neighbors in the network pick.