A Closeness- and Priority-Based Logical Study of Social Network Creation

Abstract

This paper is part of an on-going programme on the study of the logical aspects of social network formation. It recalls the so-called social network model, discussing the properties of a notion of closeness between agents (in terms of the number of traits they have in common); then introduces an extended social network model in which different agents might assign different values to different traits, discussing the properties of the notion of weighted closeness that arises. These notions are used to define social network creation operations by means of a threshold strategy. The paper studies the properties of the social networks the updates create, providing sound and complete axiom systems for formal languages describing these updates’ effects.