Optimal community structure for social contagions. (23rd May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Su, Zhen; Wang, Wei; Li, Lixiang; Stanley, H Eugene; Braunstein, Lidia A
• Is Part Of: New journal of physics. Volume 20:Number 5(2018:May)
• Publication Date: 2018-05-23
• Subjects: community structure -- social contagions -- nonlinear dynamics; Physics -- Periodicals; Physics; Periodicals; 530.05
• DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/aac0c9
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1367-2630

Abstract

Abstract: Community structure is an important factor in the behavior of real-world networks because it strongly affects the stability and thus the phase transition order of the spreading dynamics. We here propose a reversible social contagion model of community networks that includes the factor of social reinforcement. In our model an individual adopts a social contagion when the number of received units of information exceeds its adoption threshold. We use mean-field approximation to describe our proposed model, and the results agree with numerical simulations. The numerical simulations and theoretical analyses both indicate that there is a first-order phase transition in the spreading dynamics, and that a hysteresis loop emerges in the system when there is a variety of initially adopted seeds. We find an optimal community structure that maximizes spreading dynamics. We also find a rich phase diagram with a triple point that separates the no-diffusion phase from the two diffusion phases.