Conditions for viral influence spreading through multiplex correlated social networks

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework to understand how viral influence spreads in multiplex correlated social networks, identifying key conditions and phase transitions that lead to cascades of followers and network fragmentation.

Contribution

It introduces a model with hidden influence links and analytical solutions predicting percolation transitions, validated by empirical data, advancing understanding of viral influence in complex networks.

Findings

Viral spreading requires multiplex correlation with influence links.

Percolation phase transitions can be abrupt or continuous.

Empirical data confirms the model's predictions.

Abstract

A fundamental problem in network science is to predict how certain individuals are able to initiate new networks to spring up "new ideas". Frequently, these changes in trends are triggered by a few innovators who rapidly impose their ideas through "viral" influence spreading producing cascades of followers fragmenting an old network to create a new one. Typical examples include the raise of scientific ideas or abrupt changes in social media, like the raise of Facebook.com to the detriment of Myspace.com. How this process arises in practice has not been conclusively demonstrated. Here, we show that a condition for sustaining a viral spreading process is the existence of a multiplex correlated graph with hidden "influence links". Analytical solutions predict percolation phase transitions, either abrupt or continuous, where networks are disintegrated through viral cascades of followers as in empirical data. Our modeling predicts the strict conditions to sustain a large viral spreading via a scaling form of the local correlation function between multilayers, which we also confirm empirically. Ultimately, the theory predicts the conditions for viral cascading in a large class of multiplex networks ranging from social to financial systems and markets.