Influence Maximization in Signed Networks by Enhancing the Negative Influence

Abstract

With the advancement of science and technology, research on influence maximization in networks has become a hot spot. In social networks, there is not only a positive relationship among nodes but also a negative impact, and the negative impact often plays a greater role than the positive impact, as observed for shopping websites or online votes. This paper proposes a method based on an independent cascade model by emphasizing the negative impact in symbolic networks to solve the problem of influence maximization. First, an algorithm that is based on an independent path and that emphasizes negative influence is designed to obtain the probability among nodes. Based on the activation probability, an algorithm is proposed to identify nodes that could have the greatest impact on the influence increment from the seeds. Finally, the seed set is confirmed based on the influence in the corresponding symbol network. In the experiment performed on real-world network data, the result indicate that the proposed algorithm causes more substantial influence propagation than do other algorithms.