Collective patterns of social diffusion are shaped by individual inertia and trend-seeking

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25953-1
• Publication Date: 2021-09-29T10:21:04Z
• Authors: Mengbin Ye; Lorenzo Zino; Žan Mlakar; Jan Willem Bolder...; Hans Risselada; Bob M. Fennis; Ming Cao
• Keywords: Agent-Based Model

Abstract Social conventions change when individuals collectively adopt an alternative over the status quo, in a process known as social diffusion. Our repeated trials of multi-round experiment provided data that helped motivate proposal agent-based model diffusion incorporates inertia and trend-seeking, two behavioural mechanisms are well documented psychology literature. The former causes people to stick with their current decision, latter creates sensitivity population-level changes. We show such inclusion resolves contradictions existing models, allowing reproduce patterns which consistent our empirical observations at both individual population level. reveals how emergent pattern is critically shaped by individual-level mechanisms; trend-seeking guarantees explosive after takes off, but can greatly delay time take-off.