Articles tagged with Social Networks
A team of researchers has developed a system that can predict global social trends, including consumer reactions and social movements, by analyzing data from a small group of Twitter users. The method, which uses the friendship paradox property on Twitter, was tested using just 50,000 accounts and achieved impressive results.
A study analyzing over 1 million prescription drug posts reveals that health-focused social networks, such as WebMD and Drugs.com, have more negative sentiment than general social networks like Twitter and Google+. The researchers also found that specific drugs, like Viagra and Abilify, are more popular on certain types of platforms.
A recent study found that online and offline reasons contribute to unfriending on Facebook. Businesses can avoid being unfriended by avoiding frequent posts, committing to individual-level relationships, and refraining from controversial topics.
A new model developed by Bruno Ribeiro at Carnegie Mellon University assesses the viability of membership-based websites and social networks. The model successfully predicted the sustainability of six years' worth of user statistics for 22 membership-based websites, separating self-sustaining from unsustainable sites.
A team of researchers used a statistical network analysis to examine recurring characters in the Icelandic sagas and found connections to modern comic book franchises. The study reveals that the properties of these social networks are remarkably similar to those of real-world societies.
Using social networks for pre-employment screening can create a negative impression of the company, leading to lower attractiveness and potential lawsuits. Applicants perceive this practice as an invasion of privacy, which can discourage them from accepting job offers.
A new study found that consumers rejected from social networks are more likely to purchase products already accepted by the group than choose something unique. In contrast, brands using popularity appeals may elicit a positive response by emphasizing the uniqueness of their product.
Researchers created a software program to predict how users will set privacy levels for new content and connections, aiming to improve security without affecting user experience. The program shows promise in some scenarios, with accuracy rates up to 90%, but struggles with re-uploading content found from others.
A study of 126,134 users on OkCupid.com found that racial barriers to romance are not insurmountable online. While people tend to self-segregate by race, they are more likely to reciprocate a cross-race overture and initiate interracial contact in the future.
A study by Nicola Weber and colleagues found that TB-infected badgers are less likely to spread the disease within their own groups but more likely to facilitate spread across a network. Vaccination may be a more effective strategy for controlling TB in badger populations, maintaining social structure intact.
Researchers found that hyperlink films follow conventional social patterns, with an average of 31.4 characters important for plot development, similar to the size of an affinity group in contemporary society. This challenges the idea that these films can create a more complex and interconnected world.
People with lower self-esteem focus on others' posts, while those with higher self-esteem invest in personal profile information on Facebook. Individuals with higher self-esteem also show more agency, adding family, education, and work experience to their profiles.
A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers analyzed over 3 million news articles and Twitter profiles to create a system that characterizes the content of shared articles based on readers' self-described interests. This approach provides a consistent and reliable means of representing content, enabling better performance ...
A new study from the University of California - San Francisco found that friendships play a crucial role in reducing risky behaviors among homeless youth. Homeless young women were found to have lower condom use and a higher likelihood of sex with intravenous drug users, leading to higher rates of STIs.
Researchers found that monkeys with strong social networks learned new foraging techniques faster, indicating a link between social ties and the spread of innovation. The study provides insight into how social networks may influence the emergence of cultural behaviors in non-human primates.
A study on sports journalists' social network found that the Sandusky scandal led to rapid Twitter adoption, with 151 journalists joining in just two days. The 'Power 30' subgroup had significant influence, with 1.7 million followers.
A new social media initiative helped boost organ donor registration rates in the US, with a 21.1-fold increase on the first day of the campaign. The study suggests that social media can be an effective tool for tackling public health problems related to communication and education.
Researchers used complex network metrics to study primate species and their parasite fauna, finding that central primates are more capable of transmitting parasites to other species and humans. This discovery could inform early warning plans for emerging diseases in humans.
Researchers analyzed the social networks of wild chimpanzees to identify key individuals most likely to contract and spread pathogens. High-ranking mothers, juveniles with large families, and high-ranking males were found to be central to the network.
A University of Pittsburgh study found that hackers can identify over 60% of a target's private friends through the mutual-friends feature on Facebook. This can lead to inferring personal information, such as political affiliations or embarrassing details.
Researchers found that a peer-referral program increased HIV diagnoses and reached uninsured populations. The study suggests that social network testing programs can be implemented in healthcare settings to provide valuable access into high-risk communities.
Researchers have developed a mathematical model that uses game theory to disrupt the flow of information in terrorist networks. The model, inspired by a two-player outdoor game called Seepage, can identify the most effective points for disrupting messages in hierarchical social networks.
Researchers from MIT found that individuals with strong connections to successful people in their online networks are more likely to succeed. Affiliation with prominent academic institutions like ETH Zurich also plays a significant role in predicting success.
A study by Georgia Tech found that daily text messages about symptoms and asthma knowledge improved pulmonary function and understanding among pediatric patients with asthma. The results suggest that awareness and knowledge are crucial to proactive behavior, leading to better clinical outcomes.
Researchers analyzed social bonds in rock hyrax colonies, finding that balanced triads are more common than initially thought. Structural balance theory suggests that enemies of enemies can be stable configurations, contradicting classical human relationship dynamics.
A study of college freshmen women found that excessive media use, particularly social networking and texting, was associated with lower GPAs and other negative academic outcomes. However, newspaper reading and listening to music were positively correlated with academic performance.
A recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that social networks like Twitter and Facebook can coordinate people during critical situations. However, the strategy's success is highly dependent on the users' ability to quickly disseminate information and have a large number of social links.
A study of over 800,000 painted ceramic and 4,800 obsidian artifacts reveals dramatic changes in social networks over a 250-year period in the late pre-Hispanic Southwest. Researchers found that people maintained surprisingly long-distance relationships despite physical distances, using walking as their only mode of transportation.
A new Cornell study finds that humans use simplifying rules to manage social information, recalling ties with kinship labels twice as well as those without. The research helps explain why humans can maintain vast social networks, unlike other primates.
Scientists from Royal Holloway University have discovered evidence of Twitter communities that share common characteristics, occupations, and interests. The study found that users can be predicted to belong to a particular community by analyzing their language use, with surprising groups emerging that were not expected.
A study published in PLOS ONE found that high school students whose friends had higher GPAs were more likely to increase their own scores over time. The researchers also discovered that social connections with weaker academic performers could lead to decreased grades.
A recent University of Michigan study found that young adults in Generation X maintain a healthy balance between personal and electronic social networking. The study, which included responses from 3,027 Gen Xers, also revealed that individuals with higher levels of education tend to have larger social networks.
A new study found that Facebook posts are remarkably memorable, outperforming both human faces and sentences from books in terms of retention. The researchers suggest that this is due to the casual, gossipy language used in microblogs, which taps into people's basic language capacities.
Researchers found that users who focus on close friends' updates experience increased self-esteem, but also display less self-control. This can lead to higher body-mass indexes, credit-card debt, and binge eating. Social network use is linked to poorer offline behaviors in individuals with strong social connections.
A University of Illinois study highlights the importance of openness, positivity, assurances, shared tasks, and a shared social network in maintaining healthy relationships. Practicing these strategies can lead to increased satisfaction, commitment, and love throughout a relationship.
A study at Ben-Gurion University predicts course grades based on students' online and offline social connections. The researchers found that students with good social networks tend to excel academically and are more likely to pair with peers who share similar strengths.
Research finds that people with a small social network and deep ties are more well-off when economic conditions are unstable, while those with a broad social network and weak ties do better in economically favorable contexts. Participants who had a narrow, deep friendship strategy reported greater well-being than those who had a broad,...
A study by Keith Wilcox and Andrew T. Stephen found that Facebook usage can lead to reduced self-control, resulting in unhealthy snacking, increased body mass index, and higher credit card debt among users with many close friends. The research highlights the potential negative impact of social media on consumer well-being.
A study led by Anthony Jack from Case Western Reserve University shows that the brain fires up one network for empathy and suppresses another for analysis, limiting their simultaneous use. This finding suggests established theories about two competing networks in the brain must be revised.
Physicists analyzed the interactions between characters in the Iliad, Beowulf, and Tain Bó Cuailngé, finding similarities with real-life social networks. The study revealed assortative and vulnerable network structures, indicating realistic societal dynamics.
Informal social networks play a crucial role in finding jobs, especially high-paying ones, in the US where open market systems prioritize merit over connections. In contrast, Germany sees 40% of jobs filled through informal recruitment, with no apparent link to wages.
A study by David Shoham found that students with heavier friends were more likely to gain weight, while those with leaner friends tended to get trimmer. The research suggests that social influence plays a significant role in obesity, and targeted interventions may be necessary to prevent weight gain.
A study published in Computers in Human Behavior found that editing social media profiles on Facebook increases self-esteem, while using MySpace leads to higher levels of narcissism. Researchers also discovered that the differences in site format between MySpace and Facebook may contribute to these findings.
Research found that blogging positively impacts new mothers' well-being by increasing feelings of social support, marital satisfaction, and reducing parenting stress. Blogging provides an outlet for stay-at-home moms to connect with family and friends, showcasing their hobbies and accomplishments.
Researchers at UC3M developed an algorithm called SoSACO that accelerates route-finding in social networks by mimicking the behavior of ants. This allows for rapid responses in tens of milliseconds, with applications in various fields such as online games and delivery systems.
Researchers' study shows that people prioritize personal cooperation over network reciprocity, contradicting previous studies. The study's findings suggest that decision-making in cooperative dilemmas depends solely on individual experiences, not social networks.
The system, eStorys, facilitates the search for photographs related to a specific theme, time or place and allows users to share digital stories that aid in understanding or documentation of emergency situations. Experts found it easy to use and exhibited good integration of its functional qualities.
Researchers studied viral campaigns and found that increased product involvement and social network consideration significantly predicted sharing intentions. People filter information, but personal involvement in the item being shared also contributes to higher likelihood of sharing.
A new study of middle schoolers found that teammates' smoking affects youths' decisions about smoking, with adolescents in more sports smoking less. Peer-led interactive programs can now be expanded to include sports teams to prevent teens from smoking.
A study of forked fungus beetles reveals that their social positions are related to reproductive success, suggesting that natural selection drives the evolution of social behavior. The researchers found that individual behaviors can influence their position in society, leading to varying levels of mating and reproduction.
A new study of hunter-gatherers, the Hadza people, suggests that social networks played a crucial role in the evolution of cooperation. The researchers found that individuals with similar characteristics, such as food preferences, formed distinct clusters within their social networks.
Twitter's US growth relied on media attention and traditional social networks based on geographic proximity and socioeconomic similarity. The site's popularity spread via face-to-face interactions, with early adopters in cities close to Boston and San Francisco.
A study by Dr Matt Barnes found that two-thirds of workers work at unusual times, limiting their leisure time and social interactions. Older people, particularly those living alone, experience poor social relations and social exclusion, with many spending hours alone each day.
Researchers develop an integrated statistical framework to model multiple relationships of different types on a common set of actors. The study found that common factors determined the likelihood of relationship formation, including geographical proximity and online popularity. The model accurately predicted relationships in networks, ...
A new Harvard study found that dynamic social networks encourage cooperation and friendliness, while selfish behavior can lead to exclusion from the group. Players who re-wired their social connections were more willing to form new relationships with generous individuals.
A person-centered approach to healthcare significantly shortens hospital stays by up to one-third while enhancing daily functional capacity. However, the study highlights difficulties in adopting this model due to rigid healthcare structures.
A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that lonely individuals behave differently in the marketplace than people with strong social networks. Lonely people prefer minority-endorsed products, but only when their preferences are kept private.
A UC3M study found that Spanish journalists predominantly use Twitter to publish and distribute information, identify trends, and build audience loyalty. However, only a quarter of respondents use Twitter for investigative reporting.
A new study published in Academic Pediatrics reports that adolescents are at heightened risk of alcohol use onset due to their position in the social network. The study found that closer proximity to more popular individuals and larger social networks increase the likelihood of drinking initiation.
A new study by Arizona State University researchers found that women often underestimate the weight of their friends' and family members' opinions on their weight. Despite having supportive loved ones, women are vulnerable to fat stigma due to pervasive mass media messages.