Feedback effects between similarity and social influence in online communities

Citation

Crandall, D.; Cosley, D.; Huttenlocher, D.; Kleinberg, J.; and Suri, S. 2008. Feedback effects between similarity and social influence in online communities. Proc. 14th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining.

Online Version

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/kdd08-sim.pdf

Summary

This paper develop techniques for identifying and modeling the interactions between social influence and selection, using data from online communities where both social interaction and changes in behavior over time can be measured. It finds clear feedback effects between the two factors, with rising similarity between two individuals serving, in aggregate, as an indicator of future interaction — but with similarity then continuing to increase steadily, although at a slower rate, for long periods after initial interactions. The authors also consider the relative value of similarity and social influence in modeling future behavior. For instance, to predict the activities that an individual is likely to do next, is it more useful to know the current activities of their friends, or of the people most similar to them?