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Cited by 669Complex Network Analysis TechniquesOpinion Dynamics and Social InfluenceComplex Systems and Time Series Analysis

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 48 of the 51 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 1 are not checked yet.

The “majority illusion” in social networks

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Lerman, Kristina, Yan, Xiaoran, Wu, Xin-Zeng·2016·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0147617PMC PMC4757419
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Abstract

Individual's decisions, from what product to buy to whether to engage in risky behavior, often depend on the choices, behaviors, or states of other people. People, however, rarely have global knowledge of the states of others, but must estimate them from the local observations of their social contacts. Network structure can significantly distort individual's local observations. Under some conditions, a state that is globally rare in a network may be dramatically over-represented in the local neighborhoods of many individuals. This effect, which we call the "majority illusion," leads individuals to systematically overestimate the prevalence of that state, which may accelerate the spread of social contagions. We develop a statistical model that quantifies this effect and validate it with measurements in synthetic and real-world networks. We show that the illusion is exacerbated in networks with a heterogeneous degree distribution and disassortative structure.

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  1. AD Berkowitz, 2005, An overview of the social norms approach, Changing the culture of college drinking: A socially situated health communication campaign, 193
  2. B Latané, 1969, Bystander ‘Apathy’, American Scientist, 57, 244

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Metadata

Authors
Lerman, K., Yan, X., & Wu, X.-Z.
Affiliations
University of Southern California (US)
Corresponding author
Lerman, Kristina
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2016-02-17
Volume
11
Issue
2
Pages
e0147617
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0147617
PMC
PMC4757419
OpenAlex
W1552468722
Cited by
669
References
51
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 135 · 2020: 123 · 2019: 119 · 2018: 94 · 2017: 78 · 2016: 30
FWCI
60.61
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1217605)
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (W911NF- 12-1-0034)
  • Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-, FA9550-10-1-, FA9550-10-1-0569)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis
Keywords
social networks, prevalence estimation, social contagion, network structure, degree heterogeneity, disassortative mixing, statistical models
MeSH terms
Humans, Illusions, Normal Distribution, Social Networking

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