Impact of Human Activity Patterns on the Dynamics of Information Diffusion

José Luis Iribarren and Esteban Moro
Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 038702 – Published 14 July 2009

Abstract

We study the impact of human activity patterns on information diffusion. To this end we ran a viral email experiment involving 31 183 individuals in which we were able to track a specific piece of information through the social network. We found that, contrary to traditional models, information travels at an unexpectedly slow pace. By using a branching model which accurately describes the experiment, we show that the large heterogeneity found in the response time is responsible for the slow dynamics of information at the collective level. Given the generality of our result, we discuss the important implications of this finding while modeling human dynamical collective phenomena.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 27 January 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.038702

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

José Luis Iribarren

  • IBM Corporation, ibm.com e-Relationship Marketing Europe, 28002 Madrid, Spain

Esteban Moro

  • Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas CSIC-UAM-UC3M-UCM, Departamento de Matemáticas & GISC, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganés (Madrid), Spain

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 3 — 17 July 2009

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Letters

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×