· 2012
The role of social networks in information diffusion
- 1,450citations
- 2012year
Short summary
A field experiment with 253 million subjects shows that exposure to friends' information sharing significantly increases individuals' likelihood and speed of spreading information online.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Exposure to friends' information sharing increases the likelihood of spreading information by 15% and speeds up propagation.
- The study involved a field experiment with 253 million subjects in situ.
- Strong ties are individually more influential in propagation.
- Weak ties are responsible for the propagation of novel information.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Online social networking technologies enable individuals to simultaneously share information with any number of peers. Quantifying the causal effect of these mediums on the dissemination of information requires not only identification of who influences whom, but also of whether individuals would still propagate information in the absence of social signals about that information. We examine the role of social networks in online information diffusion with a large-scale field experiment that randomizes exposure to signals about friends' information sharing among 253 million subjects in situ. Those who are exposed are significantly more likely to spread information, and do so sooner than those who are not exposed. We further examine the relative role of strong and weak ties in information propagation. We show that, although stronger ties are individually more influential, it is the more abundant weak ties who are responsible for the propagation of novel information. This suggests that weak ties may play a more dominant role in the dissemination of information online than currently believed.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Statistical and Nonlinear PhysicsPhysics and Astronomy