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arXiv · 2411.00714

Self-reinforcing cascades: A spreading model for beliefs or products of varying intensity or quality

Laurent Hébert-Dufresne·Juniper Lovato·Giulio Burgio·James P. Gleeson·S. Redner·P. L. Krapivsky
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Abstract

Models of how things spread often assume that transmission mechanisms are fixed over time. However, social contagions--the spread of ideas, beliefs, innovations--can lose or gain in momentum as they spread: ideas can get reinforced, beliefs strengthened, products refined. We study the impacts of such self-reinforcement mechanisms in cascade dynamics. We use different mathematical modeling techniques to capture the recursive, yet changing nature of the process. We find a critical regime with a range of power-law cascade size distributions with non-universal scaling exponents. This regime clashes with classic models, where criticality requires fine tuning at a precise critical point. Self-reinforced cascades produce critical-like behavior over a wide range of parameters, which may help explain the ubiquity of power-law distributions in empirical social data.

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Laurent Hébert-Dufresne, Juniper Lovato, Giulio Burgio, James P. Gleeson, S. Redner, P. L. Krapivsky. 2024-11-01. Self-reinforcing cascades: A spreading model for beliefs or products of varying intensity or quality. https://doi.org/10.1103/5mph-sws5

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