Three Degrees of Distance on Twitter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how retweeting behavior propagates across social networks, revealing that influence can extend up to three degrees of separation even without network instability or friction.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the three-degree propagation phenomenon occurs in retweeting, independent of network instability or friction, challenging previous explanations.

Findings

Behavior propagates up to three degrees of separation.

Propagation occurs even without network instability.

The phenomenon is consistent across different social phenomena.

Abstract

Recent work has found that the propagation of behaviors and sentiments through networks extends in ranges up to 2 to 4 degrees of distance. The regularity with which the same observation is found in dissimilar phenomena has been associated with friction in the propagation process and the instability of link structure that emerges in the dynamic of social networks. We study a contagious behavior, the practice of retweeting, in a setting where neither of those restrictions is present and still found the same result.