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Collective patterns of social diffusion are shaped by individual inertia and trend-seeking

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  • Mengbin Ye

    (Curtin University
    University of Groningen)

  • Lorenzo Zino

    (University of Groningen)

  • Žan Mlakar

    (University of Groningen)

  • Jan Willem Bolderdijk

    (University of Groningen)

  • Hans Risselada

    (University of Groningen)

  • Bob M. Fennis

    (University of Groningen)

  • Ming Cao

    (University of Groningen)

Abstract

Social conventions change when individuals collectively adopt an alternative over the status quo, in a process known as social diffusion. Our repeated trials of a multi-round experiment provided data that helped motivate the proposal of an agent-based model of social diffusion that incorporates inertia and trend-seeking, two behavioural mechanisms that are well documented in the social psychology literature. The former causes people to stick with their current decision, the latter creates sensitivity to population-level changes. We show that such inclusion resolves the contradictions of existing models, allowing to reproduce patterns of social diffusion which are consistent with our data and existing empirical observations at both the individual and population level. The model reveals how the emergent population-level diffusion pattern is critically shaped by the two individual-level mechanisms; trend-seeking guarantees the diffusion is explosive after the diffusion process takes off, but inertia can greatly delay the time to take-off.

Suggested Citation

  • Mengbin Ye & Lorenzo Zino & Žan Mlakar & Jan Willem Bolderdijk & Hans Risselada & Bob M. Fennis & Ming Cao, 2021. "Collective patterns of social diffusion are shaped by individual inertia and trend-seeking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25953-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25953-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Paul Fesenfeld, Lukas & Maier, Maiken & Brazzola, Nicoletta & Stolz, Niklas & Sun, Yixian & Kachi, Aya, 2023. "How information, social norms, and experience with novel meat substitutes can create positive political feedback and demand-side policy change," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    2. Chen, Rongkai & Fan, Ruguo & Wang, Dongxue & Yao, Qianyi, 2023. "Effects of multiple incentives on electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment in China: An evolutionary analysis in complex network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).

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