Effects of temporal correlations on cascades: threshold models on temporal networks

Area of Science:

• Social network analysis
• Information diffusion modeling
• Computational social science

Background:

• Individual adoption decisions are influenced by peer behavior within social networks.
• Threshold models are commonly used to simulate adoption dynamics based on neighbor influence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate threshold model dynamics considering network topology and contact timing.
• To analyze how empirical contact sequences affect adoption cascades.

Main Methods:

• Utilized threshold models incorporating network topology and empirical contact sequences.
• Modeled adoption based on the number of contacts with adopted neighbors within a specific time frame.
• Examined the impact of contact frequency, burstiness, and timing correlations on cascade propagation.

Main Results:

• Network structure and contact timing significantly influence the success of adoption cascades.
• Burstiness in contact sequences was found to suppress cascade sizes compared to randomized timings.
• Timing correlations between contacts on adjacent links were observed to facilitate cascade propagation.

Conclusions:

• Adoption cascade propagation is sensitive to the temporal dynamics of social interactions.
• Network topology alone is insufficient; the timing and correlation of contacts are crucial for understanding adoption.
• Understanding these dynamics can inform strategies for information diffusion and product adoption.