19 research outputs found
Modeling Evolutionary Dynamics of Lurking in Social Networks
Lurking is a complex user-behavioral phenomenon that occurs in all
large-scale online communities and social networks. It generally refers to the
behavior characterizing users that benefit from the information produced by
others in the community without actively contributing back to the production of
social content. The amount and evolution of lurkers may strongly affect an
online social environment, therefore understanding the lurking dynamics and
identifying strategies to curb this trend are relevant problems. In this
regard, we introduce the Lurker Game, i.e., a model for analyzing the
transitions from a lurking to a non-lurking (i.e., active) user role, and vice
versa, in terms of evolutionary game theory. We evaluate the proposed Lurker
Game by arranging agents on complex networks and analyzing the system
evolution, seeking relations between the network topology and the final
equilibrium of the game. Results suggest that the Lurker Game is suitable to
model the lurking dynamics, showing how the adoption of rewarding mechanisms
combined with the modeling of hypothetical heterogeneity of users' interests
may lead users in an online community towards a cooperative behavior.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Accepted at CompleNet 201
Identifying discrete behavioural types: A re-analysis of public goods game contributions by hierarchical clustering
We propose a framework for identifying discrete behavioural types in experimental data. We re-analyse data from six previous studies of public goods voluntary contributions games. Using hierarchical clustering analysis, we construct a typology of behaviour based on a simi- larity measure between strategies. We identify four types with distinct sterotypical behaviours, which together account for about 90% of participants. Compared to previous approaches, our method produces a classification in which different types are more clearly distinguished in terms of strategic behaviour and the resulting economic implications