Threshold models of collective behavior.
01 May 1978-American Journal of Sociology (University of Chicago Press)-Vol. 83, Iss: 6, pp 1420-1443
TL;DR: This article developed models of collective behavior for situations where actors have two alternatives and the costs and/or benefits of each depend on how many other actors choose which alternative, and the key...
Abstract: Models of collective behavior are developed for situations where actors have two alternatives and the costs and/or benefits of each depend on how many other actors choose which alternative. The key...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them, and describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative.
Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.
32,981 citations
24 Aug 2003
TL;DR: An analysis framework based on submodular functions shows that a natural greedy strategy obtains a solution that is provably within 63% of optimal for several classes of models, and suggests a general approach for reasoning about the performance guarantees of algorithms for these types of influence problems in social networks.
Abstract: Models for the processes by which ideas and influence propagate through a social network have been studied in a number of domains, including the diffusion of medical and technological innovations, the sudden and widespread adoption of various strategies in game-theoretic settings, and the effects of "word of mouth" in the promotion of new products. Recently, motivated by the design of viral marketing strategies, Domingos and Richardson posed a fundamental algorithmic problem for such social network processes: if we can try to convince a subset of individuals to adopt a new product or innovation, and the goal is to trigger a large cascade of further adoptions, which set of individuals should we target?We consider this problem in several of the most widely studied models in social network analysis. The optimization problem of selecting the most influential nodes is NP-hard here, and we provide the first provable approximation guarantees for efficient algorithms. Using an analysis framework based on submodular functions, we show that a natural greedy strategy obtains a solution that is provably within 63% of optimal for several classes of models; our framework suggests a general approach for reasoning about the performance guarantees of algorithms for these types of influence problems in social networks.We also provide computational experiments on large collaboration networks, showing that in addition to their provable guarantees, our approximation algorithms significantly out-perform node-selection heuristics based on the well-studied notions of degree centrality and distance centrality from the field of social networks.
5,887 citations
Cites background or methods from "Threshold models of collective beha..."
...[5, 15, 18, 19, 21, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33])but the following Linear Threshold Model lies at the core of most subsequent generalizations....
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...Granovetter and Schelling were among the first to propose models that capture such a process; their approach was based on the use of node-specific thresholds [15, 28]....
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...We begin by departing somewhat from the Domingos-Richardson framework in the following sense: where their models are essentially descriptive, specifying a joint distribution over all nodes’ behavior in a global sense, we focus on more operational models from mathematical sociology [15, 28] and interacting particle systems [11, 17] that explicitly represent the step-by-step dynamics of adoption....
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TL;DR: In this article, Frame alignment, of one variety or another, is a necessary condition for participation, whatever its nature or intensity, and that it is typically an interactional and ongoing accomplishment.
Abstract: This paper attempts to further theoretical and empirical understanding of adherent and constituent mobilization by proposing and analyzing frame alignment as a conceptual bridge linking social psychological and resource mobilization views on movement participation. Extension of Goffinan's (1974) frame analytic perspective provides the conceptualltheoretical framework; field research on two religious movements, the peace movement, and several neighborhood movements provide the primary empirical base. Four frame alignment processes are identified and elaborated: frame bridging, frame amplification, frame extension, and frame transformation. The basic underlying premise is that frame alignment, of one variety or another, is a necessary condition for participation, whatever its nature or intensity, and that it is typically an interactional and ongoing accomplishment. The paper concludes with an elaboration of several sets of theoretical and research implications.
5,347 citations
Cites background from "Threshold models of collective beha..."
...…perspective, appears at first glance to have attempted to remedy this neglect by focusing attention on the process by which prospective participants weigh the anticipated costs of action or inaction vis-a-vis the benefits (Granovetter, 1978; Klandermans, 1983, 1984; Oberschall, 1980; Oliver, 1980)....
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TL;DR: The problem of finding the most influential nodes in a social network is NP-hard as mentioned in this paper, and the first provable approximation guarantees for efficient algorithms were provided by Domingos et al. using an analysis framework based on submodular functions.
Abstract: Models for the processes by which ideas and influence propagate through a social network have been studied in a number of domains, including the diffusion of medical and technological innovations, the sudden and widespread adoption of various strategies in game-theoretic settings, and the effects of "word of mouth" in the promotion of new products. Recently, motivated by the design of viral marketing strategies, Domingos and Richardson posed a fundamental algorithmic problem for such social network processes: if we can try to convince a subset of individuals to adopt a new product or innovation, and the goal is to trigger a large cascade of further adoptions, which set of individuals should we target?We consider this problem in several of the most widely studied models in social network analysis. The optimization problem of selecting the most influential nodes is NP-hard here, and we provide the first provable approximation guarantees for efficient algorithms. Using an analysis framework based on submodular functions, we show that a natural greedy strategy obtains a solution that is provably within 63% of optimal for several classes of models; our framework suggests a general approach for reasoning about the performance guarantees of algorithms for these types of influence problems in social networks.We also provide computational experiments on large collaboration networks, showing that in addition to their provable guarantees, our approximation algorithms significantly out-perform node-selection heuristics based on the well-studied notions of degree centrality and distance centrality from the field of social networks.
4,390 citations
References
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: The theory of information as discussed by the authors provides a yardstick for calibrating our stimulus materials and for measuring the performance of our subjects and provides a quantitative way of getting at some of these questions.
Abstract: First, the span of absolute judgment and the span of immediate memory impose severe limitations on the amount of information that we are able to receive, process, and remember. By organizing the stimulus input simultaneously into several dimensions and successively into a sequence or chunks, we manage to break (or at least stretch) this informational bottleneck. Second, the process of recoding is a very important one in human psychology and deserves much more explicit attention than it has received. In particular, the kind of linguistic recoding that people do seems to me to be the very lifeblood of the thought processes. Recoding procedures are a constant concern to clinicians, social psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists and yet, probably because recoding is less accessible to experimental manipulation than nonsense syllables or T mazes, the traditional experimental psychologist has contributed little or nothing to their analysis. Nevertheless, experimental techniques can be used, methods of recoding can be specified, behavioral indicants can be found. And I anticipate that we will find a very orderly set of relations describing what now seems an uncharted wilderness of individual differences. Third, the concepts and measures provided by the theory of information provide a quantitative way of getting at some of these questions. The theory provides us with a yardstick for calibrating our stimulus materials and for measuring the performance of our subjects. In the interests of communication I have suppressed the technical details of information measurement and have tried to express the ideas in more familiar terms; I hope this paraphrase will not lead you to think they are not useful in research. Informational concepts have already proved valuable in the study of discrimination and of language; they promise a great deal in the study of learning and memory; and it has even been proposed that they can be useful in the study of concept formation. A lot of questions that seemed fruitless twenty or thirty years ago may now be worth another look. In fact, I feel that my story here must stop just as it begins to get really interesting. And finally, what about the magical number seven? What about the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades, the seven ages of man, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, the seven notes of the musical scale, and the seven days of the week? What about the seven-point rating scale, the seven categories for absolute judgment, the seven objects in the span of attention, and the seven digits in the span of immediate memory? For the present I propose to withhold judgment. Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all these sevens, something just calling out for us to discover it. But I suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence.
19,835 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1956
TL;DR: The theory provides us with a yardstick for calibrating the authors' stimulus materials and for measuring the performance of their subjects, and the concepts and measures provided by the theory provide a quantitative way of getting at some of these questions.
Abstract: First, the span of absolute judgment and the span of immediate memory impose severe limitations on the amount of information that we are able to receive, process, and remember. By organizing the stimulus input simultaneously into several dimensions and successively into a sequence or chunks, we manage to break (or at least stretch) this informational bottleneck. Second, the process of recoding is a very important one in human psychology and deserves much more explicit attention than it has received. In particular, the kind of linguistic recoding that people do seems to me to be the very lifeblood of the thought processes. Recoding procedures are a constant concern to clinicians, social psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists and yet, probably because recoding is less accessible to experimental manipulation than nonsense syllables or T mazes, the traditional experimental psychologist has contributed little or nothing to their analysis. Nevertheless, experimental techniques can be used, methods of recoding can be specified, behavioral indicants can be found. And I anticipate that we will find a very orderly set of relations describing what now seems an uncharted wilderness of individual differences. Third, the concepts and measures provided by the theory of information provide a quantitative way of getting at some of these questions. The theory provides us with a yardstick for calibrating our stimulus materials and for measuring the performance of our subjects. In the interests of communication I have suppressed the technical details of information measurement and have tried to express the ideas in more familiar terms; I hope this paraphrase will not lead you to think they are not useful in research. Informational concepts have already proved valuable in the study of discrimination and of language; they promise a great deal in the study of learning and memory; and it has even been proposed that they can be useful in the study of concept formation. A lot of questions that seemed fruitless twenty or thirty years ago may now be worth another look. In fact, I feel that my story here must stop just as it begins to get really interesting. And finally, what about the magical number seven? What about the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades, the seven ages of man, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, the seven notes of the musical scale, and the seven days of the week? What about the seven-point rating scale, the seven categories for absolute judgment, the seven objects in the span of attention, and the seven digits in the span of immediate memory? For the present I propose to withhold judgment. Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all these sevens, something just calling out for us to discover it. But I suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence.
16,902 citations
"Threshold models of collective beha..." refers background in this paper
...Someone with a riot threshold of 17% may be unable, for example, to distinguish among values between 15% and 20%; studies of human information processing suggest limits to the number of distinctions which can be made along one sensory dimension (Miller 1956)....
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Book•
01 Jan 1966
TL;DR: Scheleris et al. as mentioned in this paper proposed a sociologijos disciplinos raida, which is a discipline for sociologists to discipline themselves in the discipline of social sciences.
Abstract: Publikacijoje apžvelgiama žinojimo sociologijos disciplinos raida, pateikiamos svarbiausios jos nagrinėjamos sąvokos ir tyrimo tikslai. Teigiama, kad tikrovė yra socialiskai konstruojama ir kad žinojimo sociologija turi analizuoti sio konstravimo procesus. Ji turi aiskinti ne tik empirine žinojimo įvairove visuomenėse, bet taip pat ir procesus, dėl kurių bet kuris žinojimas tampa socialiskai pripažinta tikrove. K. Marxo tezė, kad žmogaus sąmone apsprendžia jo socialinė būtis, tapo bazine žinojimo sociologijos teze. Terminą „žinojimo sociologija“įvedė M. Scheleris. Jis teigė, kad visuomenė lemia idėjų būtį, bet ne jų prigimtį ir pabrėžė individualaus žmogiskojo žinojimo aprioriskumą, kuris prasmės sistemą įgyja visuomenėje. K. Mannheimas teigė, kad visuomenė sąlygoja ne tik žmogiskosios idealizacijos formą, bet ir turinį. Jam svarbiausias buvo ideologijos reiskinys. Skyrė partikuliarinės, totalinės ir bendrosios ideologijos sąvokas. R. Mertonas siekė sujungti žinojimo sociologijos ir struktūrinės funkcinės teorijos pozicijas. Autoriai isplecia sios sociolgijos tyrimo objektą teigdami, kad ji turi tirti ne tik idėjų istoriją, bet viską, kas visuomenėje laikoma žinojimu.
10,453 citations
9,533 citations