IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/ijmpcx/v17y2006i07ns0129183106009473.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reciprocity And The Emergence Of Power Laws In Social Networks

Author

Listed:
  • MICHAEL SCHNEGG

    (Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Cologne, D-50923, Cologne, Germany)

Abstract

Research in network science has shown that many naturally occurring and technologically constructed networks arescale free, that means a power law degree distribution emerges from a growth model in which each new node attaches to the existing network with a probability proportional to its number of links (= degree). Little is known about whether the same principles of local attachment and global properties apply to societies as well. Empirical evidence from six ethnographic case studies shows that complex social networks have significantly lower scaling exponentsγ ~ 1than have been assumed in the past. Apparently humans do not only look for the most prominent players to play with. Moreover cooperation in humans is characterized through reciprocity, the tendency to give to those from whom one has received in the past. Both variables — reciprocity and the scaling exponent — are negatively correlated (r = -0.767,sig= 0.075). If we include this effect in simulations of growing networks, degree distributions emerge that are much closer to those empirically observed. While the proportion of nodes with small degrees decreases drastically as we introduce reciprocity, the scaling exponent is more robust and changes only when a relatively large proportion of attachment decisions follow this rule. If social networks are lessscale freethan previously assumed this has far reaching implications for policy makers, public health programs and marketing alike.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Schnegg, 2006. "Reciprocity And The Emergence Of Power Laws In Social Networks," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(07), pages 1067-1076.
  • Handle: RePEc:wsi:ijmpcx:v:17:y:2006:i:07:n:s0129183106009473
    DOI: 10.1142/S0129183106009473
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0129183106009473
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0129183106009473?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dorogovtsev, S.N. & Mendes, J.F.F., 2003. "Evolution of Networks: From Biological Nets to the Internet and WWW," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198515906.
    2. Henrich, Joseph & Boyd, Robert & Bowles, Samuel & Camerer, Colin & Fehr, Ernst & Gintis, Herbert (ed.), 2004. "Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199262052.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kenji Itao & Kunihiko Kaneko, 2023. "Transition of social organisations driven by gift relationships," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Schnegg, Michael & Linke, Theresa, 2015. "Living Institutions: Sharing and Sanctioning Water among Pastoralists in Namibia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 205-214.
    3. WALTHER Olivier, 2012. "Regional trade and economic networks in West Africa," LISER Working Paper Series 2012-07, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    4. Hohnisch, Martin & Pittnauer, Sabine & Stauffer, Dietrich, 2006. "A Percolation-Based Model Explaining Delayed Take-Off in New-Product Diffusion," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 9/2006, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ya-Chun Gao & Zong-Wen Wei & Bing-Hong Wang, 2013. "Dynamic Evolution Of Financial Network And Its Relation To Economic Crises," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 1-10.
    2. Fabian Kosse & Thomas Deckers & Pia Pinger & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch & Armin Falk, 2020. "The Formation of Prosociality: Causal Evidence on the Role of Social Environment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(2), pages 434-467.
    3. Coleman, S., 2010. "Russian Election Reform and the Effect of Social Conformity on Voting and the Party System: 2007 and 2008," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 5, pages 73-90.
    4. Ehmke, Mariah & Lusk, Jayson & Tyner, Wallace, 2010. "Multidimensional tests for economic behavior differences across cultures," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 37-45, January.
    5. Michael Burda & Daniel Hamermesh & Philippe Weil, 2013. "Total work and gender: facts and possible explanations," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 239-261, January.
    6. Wang, Qingyun & Duan, Zhisheng & Chen, Guanrong & Feng, Zhaosheng, 2008. "Synchronization in a class of weighted complex networks with coupling delays," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(22), pages 5616-5622.
    7. Sun-Ki Chai & Dolgorsuren Dorj & Katerina Sherstyuk, 2018. "Cultural Values and Behavior in Dictator, Ultimatum, and Trust Games: An Experimental Study," Research in Experimental Economics, in: Experimental Economics and Culture, volume 20, pages 89-166, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    8. F. W. S. Lima, 2015. "Evolution of egoism on semi-directed and undirected Barabási-Albert networks," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1-9.
    9. Pamela Jakiela & Edward Miguel & Vera Velde, 2015. "You’ve earned it: estimating the impact of human capital on social preferences," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 18(3), pages 385-407, September.
    10. Chesney, Thomas & Chuah, Swee-Hoon & Hoffmann, Robert, 2009. "Virtual world experimentation: An exploratory study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 618-635, October.
    11. L. da F. Costa & L. E.C. da Rocha, 2006. "A generalized approach to complex networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 50(1), pages 237-242, March.
    12. Perc, Matjaž, 2010. "Zipf’s law and log-normal distributions in measures of scientific output across fields and institutions: 40 years of Slovenia’s research as an example," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 358-364.
    13. Florian Blöchl & Fabian J. Theis & Fernando Vega-Redondo & Eric O'N. Fisher, 2010. "Which Sectors of a Modern Economy are most Central?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3175, CESifo.
    14. Wang, Lu & Ye, Shun-qiang & Jones, Michael C. & Ye, Ye & Wang, Meng & Xie, Neng-gang, 2015. "The evolutionary analysis of the ultimatum game based on the net-profit decision," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 430(C), pages 32-38.
    15. M. C. González & A. O. Sousa & H. J. Herrmann, 2004. "Opinion Formation On A Deterministic Pseudo-Fractal Network," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(01), pages 45-57.
    16. A. Chatterjee, 2009. "Kinetic models for wealth exchange on directed networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 67(4), pages 593-598, February.
    17. Yasuyuki Sawada & Ryuji Kasahara & Keitaro Aoyagi & Masahiro Shoji & Mika Ueyama, 2013. "Modes of Collective Action in Village Economies: Evidence from Natural and Artefactual Field Experiments in a Developing Country," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 30(1), pages 31-51, March.
    18. D Dylan Johnson Restrepo & Neil F Johnson, 2017. "Unraveling the Collective Dynamics of Complex Adaptive Biomedical Systems," Current Trends in Biomedical Engineering & Biosciences, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 8(5), pages 118-132, September.
    19. Alexander Field, 2008. "Why multilevel selection matters," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 203-238, December.
    20. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8642 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Bradley L Kirkman & Kevin B Lowe & Cristina B Gibson, 2017. "A retrospective on Culture’s Consequences: The 35-year journey," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(1), pages 12-29, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:ijmpcx:v:17:y:2006:i:07:n:s0129183106009473. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/ijmpc/ijmpc.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.