Multiple spreaders affect the indirect influence on Twitter

TL;DR

This paper investigates the existence and characteristics of indirect influence between Twitter users not directly connected, revealing that complex contagion theory holds globally but not always locally, with retweeting probability showing non-monotonic behavior.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on how multiple spreaders influence indirect influence on Twitter, highlighting the complex contagion phenomenon and its local violations.

Findings

Global validation of complex contagion theory

Retweeting probability increases non-monotonically locally

Multiple spreaders enhance indirect influence overall

Abstract

Most studies on social influence have focused on direct influence, while another interesting question can be raised as whether indirect influence exists between two users who're not directly connected in the network and what affects such influence. In addition, the theory of \emph{complex contagion} tells us that more spreaders will enhance the indirect influence between two users. Our observation of intensity of indirect influence, propagated by $n$ parallel spreaders and quantified by retweeting probability on Twitter, shows that complex contagion is validated globally but is violated locally. In other words, the retweeting probability increases non-monotonically with some local drops.