Scaling in Biological and Social Networks - Abstract - Holme

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We discuss two models of socially interacting agents. In the first model we consider a system of networking agents that seek to optimize their centrality in the network while keeping their cost, the number of connections they are participating in, low. Possible situations like that occur in diplomacy, lobbying or other peerwise business relationships. Unlike other game-theory based models for network evolution, the success of the agents is related only to their position in the network. The agents use strategies based on local information to improve their chance of success. In the second case we model friendship networks by combining opinion spreading on the network with the “homophily assumption” (that people with the same opinions, interests and other traits are more likely than expected to become acquainted). We construct a model with a single parameter controlling the balance of the two processes. We find that the model undergoes a continuous phase transition as this parameter is varied, from a regime in which opinions are arbitrarily diverse to one in which most individuals hold the same opinion.

P. Holme and G. Ghoshal, Dynamics of networking agents competing for high centrality and low degree, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 098701 (2006).

P. Holme and M. E. J. Newman, Nonequilibrium phase transition in the coevolution of networks and opinions, Phys. Rev. E 74, 056108 (2006).