Limited communication capacity unveils strategies for human interaction

Abstract

Connectivity is the key process that characterizes the structural and functional properties of social networks. However, the bursty activity of dyadic interactions may hinder the discrimination of inactive ties from large interevent times in active ones. We develop a principled method to detect tie de-activation and apply it to a large longitudinal, cross-sectional communication dataset (≈19 months, ≈20 million people). Contrary to the perception of ever-growing connectivity, we observe that individuals exhibit a finite communication capacity, which limits the number of ties they can maintain active in time. On average men display higher capacity than women, and this capacity decreases for both genders over their lifespan. Separating communication capacity from activity reveals a diverse range of tie activation strategies, from stable to exploratory. This allows us to draw novel relationships between individual strategies for human interaction and the evolution of social networks at global scale.

Expert Game experiment predicts emergence of trust in professional communication networks

“…Additional weak ties may be necessary for acquisition of crucial information (3)(4)(5). Also, time constraints are characteristic of professional environments and force prioritization of actions (6,7). Individuals, therefore, face a dilemma: they can work toward accomplishing their own goals or establish and maintain social ties through helpful behavior.…”

Social fluidity mobilizes contagion in human and animal populations

“…Another hurdle in previous work has been the assumption that observed interactions will persist into the future [48]. Our method assumes only that the distribution of relationships remains constant through time, an assumption that is consistent with growing evidence [19,49].…”

“…Another hurdle in previous work has been the assumption that observed interactions will persist into the future [48]. Our method assumes only that the distribution of relationships remains constant through time, an assumption that is consistent with growing evidence [19,49].In trying to elucidate the connection between social behaviors and the spread of disease the first question to ask is whether the type of interactive behavior that the species participates in enables transmission of the infection. If it does, then the next important variable is the frequency of these interactions.…”

“…As φ increases, the model produces more "gregarious" behavior: interactions are repeated less frequently and the number of partners is larger. While this phenomena could be described as "social strategy" or "loyalty" [18,19], we feel that "social fluidity" is most appropriate for this work as it conveys an intuitive notion relevant to disease propagation [20].Disease transmission model. Building on the social behavior model introduced in the previous section, we consider a model of disease transmission.…”

Critical size of ego communication networks

“…As illustrated above, much attentions p-1 have been paid to uncovering the overall features of mobile communications networks. Apart from the overall analyses, some researchers also considered the mobile communication networks from ego perspective [15][16][17]. Miritello et al [15] uncovered the time constraints and communication capacity by studying the individual's communication strategies.…”