Belief Diffusion in Social Networks

32 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2015

See all articles by Patrick Girard

Patrick Girard

University of Auckland

Valery Pavlov

University of Auckland Business School

Mark C. Wilson

University of Auckland

Date Written: June 11, 2015

Abstract

We report the results of a laboratory experiment investigating propagation of beliefs in a social network. During the experiment, participants faced several questions having objectively correct answers and could update their answers several times based on aggregate information about answers chosen by their neighbours. One of the novelties of the experiment was that the binary choices faced by participants were augmented to include an “I do not know” option and incentives to choose it when they felt indifferent between the actual options.

We observe that the dynamics of decisions in the network strongly depends on the question type, logical or factual. The results also indicate that propagation of beliefs can be more accurately described by a threshold model rather than models of probabilistic contagion. However, in contrast with assumptions underlying standard threshold models, our results suggest that it is not the larger proportion of neighbours that is driving participants’ choices but the difference between the proportions of neighbours opting for the competing options.

Keywords: social networks, influence, advice taking, threshold model, propagation

JEL Classification: C92, D79, D83

Suggested Citation

Girard, Patrick and Pavlov, Valery and Wilson, Mark Curtis, Belief Diffusion in Social Networks (June 11, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2617554 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2617554

Patrick Girard

University of Auckland ( email )

Private Bag 92019
Auckland Mail Centre
Auckland, 1142
New Zealand

Valery Pavlov (Contact Author)

University of Auckland Business School ( email )

12 Grafton Rd
Private Bag 92019
Auckland, 1010
New Zealand

Mark Curtis Wilson

University of Auckland ( email )

Department of Computer Science
Auckland Central, 1010
New Zealand

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