The Death Spiral Information Cascade
The self-organization of army ant colonies produces particularly unique behaviors in army ants– the most bizarre and notable being the ant mill, or more colloquially, the “death spiral”. Unlike most other ant species, army ants are blind and lack permanent nesting sites. This means that army ant colonies are constantly on the march for food, […]
Game Theory as it relates to Football
The concept of risk vs. reward lies at the heart of game theory. What is your anticipated result if you do action X in situation Y? is a question that social scientists unduly complicate and call “Subjective Expected Utility.” The “Prisoner’s Dilemma” is the most well-known game theory competition. The Prisoner’s Dilemma is based on […]
Cascades, COVID-19, and Misinformation
Growing up in an immigrant household, I’d often hear of fads, crazes, and misinformation spreading through my parents’ networks – particularly as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic increased reliance on platforms for communication and connection. When I’d ask where this information was heard, the common answer would be Whatsapp. Speaking to other friends who […]
Social Network Analysis for efficient delivery of Agricultural Extension Services
The Social Network Analysis paper by Devki and Tripathi is drawn from research presentations of the 11th International Conference on Computing and Networking Technology hosted by IEEE. With the current era marked as the social age, knowledge becomes more powerful if you share it. The paper is drawn to how growth in social networks such […]
Soccer- America’s Pastime
In the last couple of weeks, a soccer frenzy has swept the United States as the Men’s National Team arrives and competes at the World Cup in Qatar. Scarves were on, pubs were rocking, chants were roaring as the US played England to a draw while setting the national record for viewership of a […]
Influence of Information Cascades with the Canada Goose Coat
The article below discusses the popularity of Canada Goose. Particularly, it focuses on how its marketing strategies contribute to success. The articles highlights how having a backstory about the founders of the company gives the brand a sense of authenticity and is crucial for success. Canada Goose was founded in Toronto in a small warehouse, […]
Echo Chambers and Information Diffusion in Social Media
The diffusion of information across social groups is crucial to dialogue, and to enabling information transfer and discussion to arise into productive and thoughtful dialogue of opposing views. As such, information flow via social media and other communication mediums offer the potential for enhanced dialogue through quicker communication across much larger groups of people than […]
Financial Market Herd Behavior in Response to Obfuscation
With the increasingly information-driven speculative financial market in the 21st century, the underinformed and herd behaviors described in this Reuters article are quite common. Following the efforts by the US to rein in inflation through hawkish monetary policy, financial markets tumbled across the board. Upon softening inflation figures, the markets rebounded in just as dramatic […]
Imitation – More Than Just Flattery
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Oscar Wilde might have insinuated that one imitates someone else because one admires and respects that person, but there are often other underlying causes for imitation that we carry out in our everyday lives, which can involve a much wider scope than emulating the behavior of a single […]
The Rule of 4
One of my favorite card games is called “The Mind”. It is an incredibly simple game with cards numbered from 1-100. Without communicating with words or gestures, the players have to lay their cards down in ascending order. Cards are kept concealed so there is no way of knowing what the other players have. The […]
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