MIT Technology Review has a summary of a fascinating recent study on the behavior of networks, and how they can lie to us, or at least make it seem like a majority of people believe something is common when it is not actually the case. The study, conducted by Kristina Lerman and others at the University of Southern California, also provides insight into how some things can go viral and spread like wildfire while similar content or ideas can’t seem to get off the ground.
Basically, the study examined how ideas spread on networks with complex connections. If a number of people who have an average or lower number of connections (Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc.) post or share something, it probably won’t go very far, because of the lack of connections. But, if a few of the people who have a very large number of connections share or post something, it is far more likely to spread. This may seem obvious, but what is counter-intuitive is that the number of people with large followings needed to create the effect is actually incredibly small…
