Simplicity of rumor self-organization revealed by unstable eigenvectors and amplitudes

T. D. Frank ()
Additional contact information
T. D. Frank: University of Connecticut

Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 2025, vol. 31, issue 1, No 1, 26 pages

Abstract: Abstract It is shown that unstable eigenvectors determine the manner in which the subpopulations involved in rumor spreading organize themselves when initially spreading out rumors. The corresponding amplitudes may determine temporal aspects of rumor spreading even beyond the linear domain of the eigenvector analysis. In doing so, eigenvectors and amplitudes taken together can reveal the relatively simply organization of rumor spreading. For the benchmark Daley-Kendall model it is demonstrated that the eigenvector determines the rumor spreading organization in all three fundamental cases of rumor spreading suggested by Pequeira. Moreover, the approach is applied to the Earth-is-flat rumor that circulated during spring 2017. The analysis suggests that subpopulations organization was characterized by a 21:25 ratio such that per 25 initially ignorant community members 21 spreaders occurred, a ratio that is close to the optimal 1:1 ratio that would indicate that every ignorant member turned into a spreader.

Keywords: Rumors; self-organization; Eigenvectors; Amplitude equations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10588-024-09393-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:comaot:v:31:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10588-024-09393-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10588

DOI: 10.1007/s10588-024-09393-y

Access Statistics for this article

Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory is currently edited by Terrill Frantz and Kathleen Carley

More articles in Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().