Information and influence in social networks

Abstract

Most research on social networks is concerned with information transmission per se Our aim here is to supplement the social network perspective by incorporating mechanisms that govern social influence Research in social psychology suggests that individuals interact, in large part, to construct a shared reality that consists not only of shared information but also of agreed upon opinions. In this process, they do not simply transmit information, but more importantly, they influence one another to arrive at a common interpretation of information. We will discuss similarities and differences in how networks structure shapes the spread of information and governs social influence. Both simulation and empirical data concerning these two processes show that they operate in a very different way. The spread of information, described as a contagion process describes how individuals learn about new facts. Social influence process describes how individuals evaluate and weight different items of information and how they change their opinions and attitudes. The results of numerous experiments have shown that three critical factors determine the impact of social influence: (1) the number of sources exerting the influence, (2) the immediacy of the source(s) to the target (s), and (3) the strength of the source(s). The process by which humans construct social reality may prove informative for designing rules of interaction among intelligent agents. The primary implication of the present model is that information is not merely acquired, but also evaluated and negotiated in a social context. The process by which humans evaluate information and construct social reality may prove informative for designing rules of interaction among intelligent agents. The primary implication of the present model is that information is not merely acquired, but also evaluated and negotiated in a social context. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.