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Charting closed-loop collective cultural decisions: from book best sellers and music downloads to Twitter hashtags and Reddit comments

Author

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  • Lukas Schneider

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Johannes Scholten

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Bulcsú Sándor

    (Babes-Bolyai University)

  • Claudius Gros

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

Abstract

Charts are used to measure relative success for a large variety of cultural items. Traditional music charts have been shown to follow self-organizing principles with regard to the distribution of item lifetimes, the on-chart residence times. Here we examine if this observation holds also for (a) music streaming charts (b) book best-seller lists and (c) for social network activity charts, such as Twitter hashtags and the number of comments Reddit postings receive. We find that charts based on the active production of items, like commenting, are more likely to be influenced by external factors, in particular by the 24 h day–night cycle. External factors are less important for consumption-based charts (sales, downloads), which can be explained by a generic theory of decision-making. In this view, humans aim to optimize the information content of the internal representation of the outside world, which is logarithmically compressed. Further support for information maximization is argued to arise from the comparison of hourly, daily and weekly charts, which allow to gauge the importance of decision times with respect to the chart compilation period.

Suggested Citation

  • Lukas Schneider & Johannes Scholten & Bulcsú Sándor & Claudius Gros, 2021. "Charting closed-loop collective cultural decisions: from book best sellers and music downloads to Twitter hashtags and Reddit comments," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 94(8), pages 1-13, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurphb:v:94:y:2021:i:8:d:10.1140_epjb_s10051-021-00173-0
    DOI: 10.1140/epjb/s10051-021-00173-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Zoltán Néda & Levente Varga & Tamás S Biró, 2017. "Science and Facebook: The same popularity law!," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-11, July.
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    3. Claudius Gros, 2017. "Entrenched time delays versus accelerating opinion dynamics: are advanced democracies inherently unstable?," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 90(11), pages 1-8, November.
    4. Ordanini, Andrea & Nunes, Joseph C., 2016. "From fewer blockbusters by more superstars to more blockbusters by fewer superstars: How technological innovation has impacted convergence on the music chart," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 297-313.
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