
Game theory explains why some content goes viral on Reddit, Digg - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/11/game-theory-explains-why-some-content-goes-viral-on-reddit-digg.ars
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feral
The title is a little misleading. The authors consider the implications of
another model of diffusion; they don't validate that this model is more
applicable to Reddit or Digg.

These models in themselves are interesting; they have surprising results that
can be used to build our intuition, but the hard part is establishing
empirical validity.

Many of the consequences that are listed in the article as being ones of a
'game theory model' vs an 'epidemic model' have been seen in previous models,
which were also more complex than simple epidemic spread.

Some of the previous work by Centola on 'complex contagions', which require
several exposures, before adoption, also yield very similar consequences. A
very readable paper:
[http://dcentola.net/Centola%20and%20Macy%20Complex%20Contagi...](http://dcentola.net/Centola%20and%20Macy%20Complex%20Contagion.pdf)

This material is relevant when considering how to build your viral loop,
target advertising, etc.

