Quantifying the Effects of Social Influence
Copyright policy )Quantifying the Effects of Social Influence
How do humans respond to indirect social influence when making decisions? We analysed an experiment where subjects had to guess the answer to factual questions, having only aggregated information about the answers of others. While the response of humans to aggregated information is a widely observed phenomenon, it has not been investigated quantitatively, in a controlled setting. We found that the adjustment of individual guesses depends linearly on the distance to the mean of all guesses. This is a remarkable, and yet surprisingly simple regularity. It holds across all questions analysed, even though the correct answers differ by several orders of magnitude. Our finding supports the assumption that individual diversity does not affect the response to indirect social influence. We argue that the nature of the response crucially changes with the level of information aggregation. This insight contributes to the empirical foundation of models for collective decisions under social influence.
Scientific Reports, 3
ISSN:2045-2322
- ETH Zurich Switzerland
Social and Information Networks (cs.SI), FOS: Computer and information sciences, Physics - Physics and Society, Models, Statistical, Decision Making, FOS: Physical sciences, Computer Science - Social and Information Networks, Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph), Applied physics; Biological physics; Psychology and behaviour; Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics, Article, Applied physics, Linear Models, Humans, Least-Squares Analysis, Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics, Social Behavior, Biological physics, Psychology and behaviour
Social and Information Networks (cs.SI), FOS: Computer and information sciences, Physics - Physics and Society, Models, Statistical, Decision Making, FOS: Physical sciences, Computer Science - Social and Information Networks, Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph), Applied physics; Biological physics; Psychology and behaviour; Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics, Article, Applied physics, Linear Models, Humans, Least-Squares Analysis, Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics, Social Behavior, Biological physics, Psychology and behaviour
selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources.This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).39 popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.Top 10% influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).Top 10% impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.Top 10%
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