On the effects of network structure and committed minority placement in promoting social diffusion

Social diffusion is the phenomenon whereby a populationcollectively adopts a novel (alternative) behaviour, opinion,product or technology to replace an existing status quo. Oftenthe process is driven by a small number of individuals, termedcommitted minority, who stubbornly promote the alternative.In this work, we use an experimentally-proven game-theoreticagent-based model to explore how social diffusion is influencedby the network of social interactions, the placement of committedminority and the timing that committed minority are introducedinto the network. Through a campaign of Monte Carlo simulations,we find that diffusion occurs quicker on sparse andhighly-clustered networks. In addition, we show that placingthe committed minority at nodes with the highest Bonacichcentrality with a negative attenuation factor seems to be the bestapproach for facilitating diffusion. Then, we find that the timingof introducing committed minority has a negligible effect on thediffusion process. Finally, our findings are tested and confirmedon a case study based on a real-world co-authorship network.