Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties Export

@article{Centola:2007, abstract = {doi: 10.1086/521848 The strength of weak ties is that they tend to be long—they connect socially distant locations, allowing information to diffuse rapidly. The authors test whether this ” strength of weak ties” generalizes from simple to complex contagions. Complex contagions require social affirmation from multiple sources. Examples include the spread of high‐risk social movements, avant garde fashions, and unproven technologies. Results show that as adoption thresholds increase, long ties can impede diffusion. Complex contagions depend primarily on the width of the bridges across a network, not just their length. Wide bridges are a characteristic feature of many spatial networks, which may account in part for the widely observed tendency for social movements to diffuse spatially.}, author = {Centola, Damon and Macy, Michael}, citeulike-article-id = {5718332}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/521848}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/521848}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1086/521848}, journal = {American Journal of Sociology}, keywords = {diffusion, social\_networks}, month = {November}, number = {3}, pages = {702--734}, posted-at = {2009-10-15 14:27:36}, priority = {2}, title = {Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/521848}, volume = {113}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - Centola:2007 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5718332 N2 - doi: 10.1086/521848 The strength of weak ties is that they tend to be long—they connect socially distant locations, allowing information to diffuse rapidly. The authors test whether this “strength of weak ties” generalizes from simple to complex contagions. Complex contagions require social affirmation from multiple sources. Examples include the spread of high‐risk social movements, avant garde fashions, and unproven technologies. Results show that as adoption thresholds increase, long ties can impede diffusion. Complex contagions depend primarily on the width of the bridges across a network, not just their length. Wide bridges are a characteristic feature of many spatial networks, which may account in part for the widely observed tendency for social movements to diffuse spatially. IS - 3 JF - American Journal of Sociology EP - 734 TI - Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties VL - 113 SP - 702 KW - diffusion KW - social_networks AU - Centola, Damon AU - Macy, Michael PY - 2007/11/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/521848 ER -