We investigate the response function of human agents as demonstrated by
written correspondence, uncovering a new universal pattern for how the reactive
dynamics of individuals is distributed across the set of each agent's contacts.
In long-term empirical data on email, we find that the set of response times
considered separately for the messages to each different correspondent of a
given writer, generate a family of heavy-tailed distributions, which have
largely the same features for all agents, and whose characteristic times grow
exponentially with the rank of each correspondent. We furthermore show that
this universal behavioral pattern emerges robustly by considering weighted
moving averages of the priority-conditioned response-time probabilities
generated by a basic prioritization model. Our findings clarify how the range
of priorities in the inputs from one's environment underpin and shape the
dynamics of agents embedded in a net of reactive relations. These newly
revealed activity patterns might be present in other general interactive
environments, and constrain future models of communication and interaction
networks, affecting their architecture and evolution.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
