Universal growth of social groups: empirical analysis and modeling

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dc.citation.issue12
dc.citation.rankM21
dc.citation.spage123402
dc.citation.volume2022
dc.contributor.authorVranić, Ana
dc.contributor.authorSmiljanić, Jelena
dc.contributor.authorMitrović Dankulov, Marija
dc.date.accessioned2023-02-28T17:32:47Z
dc.date.available2023-02-28T17:32:47Z
dc.date.issued2022-12-07
dc.description.abstractSocial groups are fundamental elements of any social system. Their emergence and evolution are closely related to the structure and dynamics of a social system. Research on social groups was primarily focused on the growth and the structure of the interaction networks of social system members and how members’ group affiliation influences the evolution of these networks. The distribution of groups’ size and how members join groups has not been investigated in detail. Here we combine statistical physics and complex network theory tools to analyze the distribution of group sizes in three data sets, Meetup groups based in London and New York and Reddit. We show that all three distributions exhibit log-normal behavior that indicates universal growth patterns in these systems. We propose a theoretical model that combines social and random diffusion of members between groups to simulate the roles of social interactions and members’ interest in the growth of social groups. The simulation results show that our model reproduces growth patterns observed in empirical data. Moreover, our analysis shows that social interactions are more critical for the diffusion of members in online groups, such as Reddit, than in offline groups, such as Meetup. This work shows that social groups follow universal growth mechanisms that need to be considered in modeling the evolution of social systems.
dc.identifier.doi10.1088/1742-5468/aca0e9
dc.identifier.issn1742-5468
dc.identifier.scopus2-s2.0-85143908186
dc.identifier.urihttps://pub.ipb.ac.rs/handle/123456789/5
dc.identifier.wos000894090400001
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherIOP Publishing
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment
dc.relation.ispartofabbrJ. Stat. Mech.
dc.rightsrestrictedAccess
dc.titleUniversal growth of social groups: empirical analysis and modeling
dc.typeArticle
dc.type.versionpublishedVersion
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