Summary

Social networks are one of the most compelling applications of network science. From the early days of sociometry to the more recent social network analysis, concepts from network science have helped uncover insights about groups of people and how they interact. Tie strength can be used to find weak ties that predict how communities might split and that enable information to spread across distant regions of a network. Small world networks resolve the paradox of small paths across networks of local connections. All of these structural properties have important implications for contagions: the spread of things such as ideas and diseases across groups of people. The concepts learned in this chapter are crucial for understanding how people behave and interact in groups. If you liked simulating contagions in this chapter, you'll love the next one! It's all about simulating...