Baton Rouge --- Online social groups have many parallels with people who form social groups in person. Professor Daniel Huttenlocher, the Neafsey Professor of Computing, Information Science and Business at Cornell University, discussed social behavior patterns with new online phenomena such as wikis, blogs and networking sites in a Distinguished Lecture at the LSU Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT.
Huttenlocher is one of 13 visiting scholars in the 2007-2008 Phi Beta Kappa program. Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society, chooses at least 12 distinguished scholars each year to visit college campuses with Phi Beta Kappa chapters and meet with students, staff and faculty. Huttenlocher visited with LSU’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa during his stay at LSU.
In his lecture at the CCT, Huttenlocher talked about how social scientists have observed group behavior for some time, looking at the ways people connect to one another and how that influences their behavior. A team of researchers, including Huttenlocher, conducted an interdisciplinary study to determine how online social networking affects people’s behavior, and whether online social influences mirror traditional networking in their effects.
The group, comprised of social scientists and computer scientists, looked at why people join certain groups, what causes some groups to grow faster than others, why people stay in or leave groups and how membership in a group affects the members’ beliefs and behaviors.
The study compared groups on Live Journal with groups within a computer science conference setup. The study shows that in both groups, people are more likely to mimic certain behaviors (i.e. joining a friend group or participating in an event) if they have two or three friends doing it rather than just one friend. But, for most people, there is a drop-off after the third friend, and multiple friends doing something does not encourage someone to participate as much as the small cluster of friends.
Huttenlocher’s conclusion is that social software on the Web is now a mass phenomenon, with many users and changing interfaces, so more studies examining online networking will likely take place. The initial indication from the Cornell study is that online social networks do not differ much from in-person social networks. But, there are differences that will occur because of the change in settings.
Huttenlocher is one of 13 visiting scholars in the 2007-2008 Phi Beta Kappa program. Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society, chooses at least 12 distinguished scholars each year to visit college campuses with Phi Beta Kappa chapters and meet with students, staff and faculty. Huttenlocher visited with LSU’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa during his stay at LSU.
In his lecture at the CCT, Huttenlocher talked about how social scientists have observed group behavior for some time, looking at the ways people connect to one another and how that influences their behavior. A team of researchers, including Huttenlocher, conducted an interdisciplinary study to determine how online social networking affects people’s behavior, and whether online social influences mirror traditional networking in their effects.
The group, comprised of social scientists and computer scientists, looked at why people join certain groups, what causes some groups to grow faster than others, why people stay in or leave groups and how membership in a group affects the members’ beliefs and behaviors.
The study compared groups on Live Journal with groups within a computer science conference setup. The study shows that in both groups, people are more likely to mimic certain behaviors (i.e. joining a friend group or participating in an event) if they have two or three friends doing it rather than just one friend. But, for most people, there is a drop-off after the third friend, and multiple friends doing something does not encourage someone to participate as much as the small cluster of friends.
Huttenlocher’s conclusion is that social software on the Web is now a mass phenomenon, with many users and changing interfaces, so more studies examining online networking will likely take place. The initial indication from the Cornell study is that online social networks do not differ much from in-person social networks. But, there are differences that will occur because of the change in settings.
Publish Date:
12-03-2007
