Social influence and the Matthew mechanism: The case of an artificial cultural market

Miia Bask and Mikael Bask

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2014, vol. 412, issue C, 113-119

Abstract: We show that the Matthew effect, or Matthew mechanism, was present in the artificial cultural market Music Lab in one-fourth of the “worlds” when social influence between individuals was allowed, whereas this effect was not present in the “world” that disallowed social influence between individuals. We also sketch on a class of social network models, derived from social influence theory, that may generate the Matthew effect. Thus, we propose a theoretical framework that may explain why the most popular songs could be much more popular, and the least popular songs could be much less popular, than when disallowing social influence between individuals.

Keywords: Matthew effect; Music Lab; Social influence; Social network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Social Influence and the Matthew Mechanism: The Case of an Artificial Cultural Market (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:412:y:2014:i:c:p:113-119

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2014.06.039

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