Fortune Monitor or Fortune Teller: Understanding the Connection between Interaction Patterns and Financial Status

Abstract

We have deployed mobile phones to more than 100 participants in a community split into two phases. In this paper, we use this unique dataset to study the correlation between users'call and Bluetooth face-to-face interaction patterns, and their financial status. We show that such correlation exists on an individual level. We find that the interaction diversity measure correlates more strongly with individual's financial status compared with other social behavior measures such as the number of contacts and length of interactions, and it is much less sensitive to personality variance. We also discuss in this paper the long-lasting sociological theory that a diverse relationship leads to a more successful financial status. Our evidence tends to support a behavioral and psychological oriented theory opposite to the prevailing arguments: Social diversity exhibited by our participants are influenced by their income as well. © 2011 IEEE.