Skype data of 500 million people reveals the real patterns of social adoption
Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - 11:31
in Psychology & Sociology
Global patterns of adoption spreading are induced by local adoption cascades initiated by multiple spontaneous adopters arriving at a constant rate, amplified by a large number of adoptions induced by social influence, and controlled by individuals who are immune to the actual adoption. This study shows that the structure of real-world adoption clusters is radically different from previous expectations. Vulnerable adoptions, induced by a single adopting neighbor, appear to be important only locally. Instead stable adopters, who are initially resisting to be exposed, are actually responsible for the emergence of global social adoption.