Reach and speed of judgment propagation in the laboratory
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Individual judgments, feelings, and behaviors can spread from person to person in social networks, similarly to the propagation of infectious diseases. Despite major implications for many social phenomena, the underlying social-contagion processes are poorly understood. We examined how participants’ perceptual judgments spread from one person to another and across diffusion chains. We gauged the speed, reach, and scale of social contagion. Judgment propagation tended to slow down with increasing social distance from the source. Crucially, it vanished beyond a social horizon of three to four people. These results advance the understanding of some of the mechanisms underlying social-contagion phenomena as well as their scope across domains as diverse as political mobilization, health practices, and emotions.
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Experimental and observational evidence suggests that natural decay allows influence from a given node to travel about three to four degrees of separation from the initiator.
“Experimental and observational evidence suggests this natural decay allows influence from a given node to travel about three to four degrees of separation from the initiator”
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Stewardship of global collective behavior
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- Authors
- Moussaïd, M., Herzog, S. M., Kämmer, J. E., & Hertwig, R.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Human Development (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Moussaïd, Mehdi
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2017-04-03
- Volume
- 114
- Issue
- 16
- Pages
- 4117-4122
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5402452
- OpenAlex
- W2604114336
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 3.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HE 2768/7-2)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Keywords
- social contagion, social influence, information distortion, social distance, exponential decay, information dissemination, experimental design, homophily
- MeSH terms
- Emotions, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Judgment, Male, Psychological Distance, Social Perception
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