Study Explores How Gossip Spreads in Social Networks Using Mathematical Models
How many different types of people — colleagues, friends, taxi drivers, etc. — should we hear a piece of information from before we start sharing it as a true fact?
Or, concerning marketing strategies, how many different types of people should recommend a service or a product before we buy it and begin recommending it ourselves?
Researchers studying the spread of infectious diseases and transmission of information have developed a model that elucidates the reasons why some news propagates through social networks before there is time to corroborate the facts. Their results, which may also help marketing companies target specific social groups, appear online at arXiv.org.
Laura P. Schaposnik, associate professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago and corresponding author on the paper, wanted to show how one could advise people about believing gossip and when to transmit something heard from others.