arXiv subjects

Brian Uzzi

Publications and source records attributed to Brian Uzzi.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Mimicry Is Presidential: Linguistic Style Matching in Presidential Debates and Improved Polling Numbers

The current research used the contexts of U.S. presidential debates and negotiations to examine whether matching the linguistic style of an opponent in a two-party exchange affects the reactions of third-party observers. Building off communication accommodation theory (CAT), interaction alignment theory (IAT), and processing fluency, we propose that language style matching (LSM) will improve subsequent third-party evaluations because matching an opponent's linguistic style reflects greater perspective taking and will make one's arguments easier to process. In contrast, research on status inferences predicts that LSM will negatively impact third-party evaluations because LSM implies followership. We conduct two studies to test these competing hypotheses. Study 1 analyzed transcripts of U.S. presidential debates between 1976 and 2012 and found that candidates who matched their opponent's linguistic style increased their standing in the polls. Study 2 demonstrated a causal relationship between LSM and third-party observer evaluations using negotiation transcripts.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2014

Stock fluctuations are correlated and amplified across networks of interlocking directorates

Traded corporations are required by law to have a majority of outside directors on their board. This requirement allows the existence of directors who sit on the board of two or more corporations at the same time, generating what is commonly known as interlocking directorates. While research has shown that networks of interlocking directorates facilitate the transmission of information between corporations, little is known about the extent to which such interlocking networks can explain the fluctuations of stock price returns. Yet, this is a special concern since the risk of amplifying stock fluctuations is latent. To answer this question, here we analyze the board composition, traders' perception, and stock performance of more than 1500 US traded corporations from 2007-2011. First, we find that the fewer degrees of separation between two corporations in the interlocking network, the stronger the temporal correlation between their stock price returns. Second, we find that the centrality of traded corporations in the interlocking network correlates with the frequency at which financial traders talk about such corporations, and this frequency is in turn proportional to the corresponding traded volume. Third, we show that the centrality of corporations was negatively associated with their stock performance in 2008, the year of the big financial crash. These results suggest that the strategic decisions made by interlocking directorates are strongly followed by stock analysts and have the potential to correlate and amplify the movement of stock prices during financial crashes. These results may have relevant implications for scholars, investors, and regulators.

q-fin.GN↗

arXiv2013

Structure and dynamics of core-periphery networks

Recent studies uncovered important core/periphery network structures characterizing complex sets of cooperative and competitive interactions between network nodes, be they proteins, cells, species or humans. Better characterization of the structure, dynamics and function of core/periphery networks is a key step of our understanding cellular functions, species adaptation, social and market changes. Here we summarize the current knowledge of the structure and dynamics of "traditional" core/periphery networks, rich-clubs, nested, bow-tie and onion networks. Comparing core/periphery structures with network modules, we discriminate between global and local cores. The core/periphery network organization lies in the middle of several extreme properties, such as random/condensed structures, clique/star configurations, network symmetry/asymmetry, network assortativity/disassortativity, as well as network hierarchy/anti-hierarchy. These properties of high complexity together with the large degeneracy of core pathways ensuring cooperation and providing multiple options of network flow re-channelling greatly contribute to the high robustness of complex systems. Core processes enable a coordinated response to various stimuli, decrease noise, and evolve slowly. The integrative function of network cores is an important step in the development of a large variety of complex organisms and organizations. In addition to these important features and several decades of research interest, studies on core/periphery networks still have a number of unexplored areas.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2013

Foraging under conditions of short-term exploitative competition: The case of stock traders

Theory purports that animal foraging choices evolve to maximize returns, such as net energy intake. Empirical research in both human and nonhuman animals reveals that individuals often attend to the foraging choices of their competitors while making their own foraging choices. Due to the complications of gathering field data or constructing experiments, however, broad facts relating theoretically optimal and empirically realized foraging choices are only now emerging. Here, we analyze foraging choices of a cohort of professional day traders who must choose between trading the same stock multiple times in a row---patch exploitation---or switching to a different stock---patch exploration---with potentially higher returns. We measure the difference between a trader's resource intake and the competitors' expected intake within a short period of time---a difference we call short-term comparative returns. We find that traders' choices can be explained by foraging heuristics that maximize their daily short-term comparative returns. However, we find no one-best relationship between different trading choices and net income intake. This suggests that traders' choices can be short-term win oriented and, paradoxically, maybe maladaptive for absolute market returns.

q-bio.PE↗

arXiv2011

Tracking Traders' Understanding of the Market Using e-Communication Data

Tracking the volume of keywords in Internet searches, message boards, or Tweets has provided an alternative for following or predicting associations between popular interest or disease incidences. Here, we extend that research by examining the role of e-communications among day traders and their collective understanding of the market. Our study introduces a general method that focuses on bundles of words that behave differently from daily communication routines, and uses original data covering the content of instant messages among all day traders at a trading firm over a 40-month period. Analyses show that two word bundles convey traders' understanding of same day market events and potential next day market events. We find that when market volatility is high, traders' communications are dominated by same day events, and when volatility is low, communications are dominated by next day events. We show that the stronger the traders' attention to either same day or next day events, the higher their collective trading performance. We conclude that e-communication among traders is a product of mass collaboration over diverse viewpoints that embodies unique information about their weak or strong understanding of the market.

cs.SI↗

arXiv2011

Common Organizing Mechanisms in Ecological and Socio-economic Networks

Previous work has shown that species interacting in an ecosystem and actors transacting in an economic context may have notable similarities in behavior. However, the specific mechanism that may underlie similarities in nature and human systems has not been analyzed. Building on stochastic food-web models, we propose a parsimonious bipartite-cooperation model that reproduces the key features of mutualistic networks - degree distribution, nestedness and modularity -- for both ecological networks and socio-economic networks. Our analysis uses two diverse networks. Mutually-beneficial interactions between plants and their pollinators, and cooperative economic exchanges between designers and their contractors. We find that these mutualistic networks share a key hierarchical ordering of their members, along with an exponential constraint in the number and type of partners they can cooperate with. We use our model to show that slight changes in the interaction constraints can produce either extremely nested or random structures, revealing that these constraints play a key role in the evolution of mutualistic networks. This could also encourage a new systematic approach to study the functional and structural properties of networks. The surprising correspondence across mutualistic networks suggests their broadly representativeness and their potential role in the productive organization of exchange systems, both ecological and social.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2011

Synchronicity, Instant Messaging and Performance among Financial Traders

Successful animal systems often manage risk through synchronous behavior that spontaneously arises without leadership. In critical human systems facing risk, such as financial markets or military operations, our understanding of the benefits associated to synchronicity is nascent but promising. Building on previous work illuminating commonalities between ecological and human systems, we compare the activity patterns of individual financial traders with the simultaneous activity of other traders---an individual and spontaneous characteristic we call synchronous trading. Additionally, we examine the association of synchronous trading with individual performance and communication patterns. Analyzing empirical data on day traders' second-to-second trading and instant messaging, we find that the higher the traders' synchronous trading, the less likely they lose money at the end of the day. We also find that the daily instant messaging patterns of traders are closely associated with their level of synchronous trading. This suggests that synchronicity and vanguard technology may help cope with risky decisions in complex systems and furnish new prospects for achieving collective and individual goals.

physics.soc-ph↗