The weakness of weak ties for novel information diffusion

Abstract

Weak ties are thought to facilitate the diffusion of information through social networks because of their tendency to span otherwise distant subgroups. However, this logic assumes that weak relationships have the same capacity to transmit information as those that are strong. I argue that weak ties, especially the kind that span subgroups, are often also lower-capacity. Due to a lack of trust, an unwillingness to share benefits, or a limited ability to understand one another, an individual is less likely to share novel information across these ties. In standard models of diffusion imported from epidemiology, even reduced-capacity links would still aid diffusion. However, accounting for reduced capacity in a new model of diffusion that captures realistic features of information sharing in human groups, I demonstrate that hesitation to share across weak links substantially impedes overall diffusion. Moreover, I show that the addition of weak ties to a social network can strictly reduce the extent and speed of information diffusion. Increasing density by adding weak ties can make diffusion strictly worse by crowding out the use of higher-capacity ties. I present the results of simulated information diffusion on both hypothetical networks generated to possess varying levels of density and homophily, as well as on real social networks in two Ugandan villages shown to be responsible for face-to-face information sharing.