title: Spreading gossip in social networks.
abstract: We study a simple model of information propagation in social networks, where two quantities are introduced: the spread factor, which measures the average maximal reachability of the neighbors of a given node that interchange information among each other, and the spreading time needed for the information to reach such a fraction of nodes. When the information refers to a particular node at which both quantities are measured, the model can be taken as a model for gossip propagation. In this context, we apply the model to real empirical networks of social acquaintances and compare the underlying spreading dynamics with different types of scale-free and small-world networks. We find that the number of friendship connections strongly influences the probability of being gossiped. Finally, we discuss how the spread factor is able to be applied to other situations.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Computational Physics, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 27, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Pedro G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Lind
authors.forename: Luciano R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: José S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Andrade
authors.forename: Hans J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Herrmann
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003198:Computer Simulation; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018907:Privacy; D012919:Social Behavior; D012944:Social Support