Social Networks From the Ground Up

Maksim Tsvetovat, Bill Kennedy, Omar Guerrero George Mason University

 Friend of a friend is my
friend

Enemy of a friend is my
enemy

Homophily / Diffusion
Similarity drives likelyhood of tie and/or
tie strength

Tie strength drives information diffusion

across tie

Birds of a feather flock together Tell me who your friends are...

Structural Holes
Span longer distances in terms of
homophily

Access to differential information Control benefits / brokerage Help form small-world networks

Simmelian Ties / Triads

Formation of distinct cultural artifacts
(jargon, shared understanding)

Feedback loops cement the tie strength

and homophily

WHY?

What is the underlying mechanism from which network structures evolve?

Hypothesis:
Social behaviors can emerge from neuro-cognitive mechanisms of the human brain

or... Human brain has a Social Operating System

Hypothesis 2: Social Network formation is mediated by neurotransmitters Dopamine and Oxytocin (and maybe others)

James Fowler --

Evidence

Social networks make you fat Liberal/conservative attitudes may be genetically modulated

Gerics, Schultz Introversion vs. Extroversion modulated by dopamine (D1 receptors); also affects homophily Creativity modulated by dopamine (D2 receptors)

Cho, DeVries, et al Marital fidelity related to oxytocin and vasopressin receptors

Dunbar -- network size related to size of PreFrontal Cortex (PFC); Bickart -- network size related to size of

... in short
Mounting evidence on many levels
supports the hypothesis that social behavior is neurotransmitter-mediated

Therefore, social network structures

may emerge from genetic factors

Units of Analysis
Neuroscience Psychology Social Sciences

Can we model S-OS?

Massive agent-based model We build agents with an artificial brain
encompassing dopamine and oxytocin circuits

Agents interact with others and the

environment; there are external stimuli in the environment

Stimuli
External -- from the environment Communicated -- from another
individual

Internal -- a private, interal context of

remembered experiences and narratives

 Stimuli affect DA levels & wellness state Wellness = higher abstraction to deal
with perception & physiological reactions

Agents well-being is visible to its

neighbors via mirror neurons

Primitive movements (food seeking)

Herding Emerges
from simple signaling

Associative Learning
Salient stimuli are associated with each
other if they occur within a single dopamine spike

!!!
Agents associate abstract signals with
other individuals

Associations become socially shared

Agents gave each other names!

Predators
Predators cause pain but do not kill Observing an attack causes empathy
pain via mirror neurons

Emergence of Sociality
Simple sociality - Associate behavior of others with a
concrete stimulus-response pair

If you see a lion, run If you see others running, run!

Shared concept of predator emerges

Narratives
A traversal through the semantic
graph is a grammar

Chomskys Universal Grammar

More complex semantics

Dominance/submission signals Hierarchy -- alpha, beta, gammas (the
rest)

... as PFC develops...

Ability for reasoning (i.e. discriminating
paths through the semantic network) increases

Ability to keep more information

increases

Higher Sociality
Families Clans, tribes Emergent, evolving social norms Emergence of language and abstraction Emergence of cultural diversity Emergence of macro-scale social
complexity

.........