Social influence: The Usage History heuristic

Bary S R Pradelski (1)

1 POLARIS - Performance analysis and optimization of LARge Infrastructures and Systems

Individual behavior such as choice of fashion, adoption of new products, and selection of means of transport is influenced by taking account of others' actions. We study social influence in a heterogeneous population and analyze the behavior of the dynamic processes. We distinguish between two information regimes: (i) agents are influenced by the adoption ratio, (ii) agents are influenced by the usage history. We identify the stable equilibria and long-run frequencies of the dynamics. We then show that the two processes generate qualitatively different dynamics, leaving characteristic 'footprints'. In particular, (ii) favors more extreme outcomes than (i).

Mots clés: imitation; equilibrium selection; social influence

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Bary S R Pradelski. Social influence: The Usage History heuristic. Mathematical Social Sciences, 2023, pp.1-21. ⟨10.2139/ssrn.4226526⟩. ⟨hal-04367513⟩