Quantifying Social Influence in an Online Cultural Market
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We revisit experimental data from an online cultural market in which 14,000 users interact to download songs, and develop a simple model that can explain seemingly complex outcomes. Our results suggest that individual behavior is characterized by a two-step process–the decision to sample and the decision to download a song. Contrary to conventional wisdom, social influence is material to the first step only. The model also identifies the role of placement in mediating social signals, and suggests that in this market with anonymous feedback cues, social influence serves an informational rather than normative role.
Date issued
2012-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory; Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)Journal
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Citation
Krumme, Coco et al. “Quantifying Social Influence in an Online Cultural Market.” Ed. Juan A. Añel. PLoS ONE 7.5 (2012): e33785.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1932-6203