The Spread of Behavior in an Online Social Network Experiment
Science, 2010 · paper · Sociology
An experiment on 1,528 participants in artificially structured online health communities tested how network structure affects the spread of a health behavior. Adoption was likelier with reinforcement from multiple neighbors, and the behavior spread farther and faster in clustered than random networks.
Checked: PDF from faculty.cs.byu.edu, fetched 5 Oct 2026. Page numbers are those of that PDF.
1 finding
Reference or label The sentence "casual contact networks across which disease may spread very quickly (25)" cites ref. 25, "P. D. Calvert et al., Membrane protein diffusion sets the speed of rod phototransduction. Nature 411, 90 (2001)". That is a paper on photoreceptor biophysics and has nothing to do with disease spread over contact networks.
- p. 6 Final paragraph of main text
casual contact networks across which disease may spread very quickly (25)
- p. 7 References and Notes, ref. 25
P. D. Calvert et al., Membrane protein diffusion sets the speed of rod phototransduction. Nature 411, 90 (2001).
- p. 6 Discussion, last paragraph
across which disease may spread very quickly (25)
- p. 7 Reference 25
Membrane protein diffusion sets the speed of rod phototransduction
Only the authors can say what is right here.
Judge's note: Viewed the p6 sentence (crop C003-a, linked citation 25) and ref. 25 on p7 (crop C003-b). The entry's own title shows it concerns molecular diffusion in retinal rods, so it cannot support a claim about epidemic spread over casual contact networks. Neighbouring entries 24 (Newman & Watts, already cited at "4, 6, 24") and 26 (acknowledgements) do not fit a simple off-by-one either. The citation is wrong, but which reference was intended cannot be told from the files, hence author_query.
Second check: another model agreed
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3 minor (typos and the like; most checked by the judge only)
Wording The text says Fig. 3 "compares the baseline likelihood of adoption after receiving one social signal to the increased likelihood of adoption for nodes receiving second, third, and fourth reinforcing signals", but the caption defines each hazard ratio against "receiving k – 1 signals". The caption makes the comparisons incremental, not all against one signal.
- p. 4 Results paragraph describing Fig. 3
compares the baseline likelihood of adoption after receiving one social signal to the increased likelihood of adoption for nodes receiving second, third, and fourth reinforcing signals
- p. 4 Fig. 3 caption
compared to the likelihood of adoption from receiving k – 1 signals
Judge's note: Read the p4 results paragraph and the Fig. 3 caption (crop C002-b). Read literally, the text compares each count with the one-signal baseline. The caption defines g as k versus k−1. The text's next sentences ("third signal also significantly increased... smaller marginal-effect size") fit the caption. This is loose wording that leaves the plotted quantity ambiguous, not a data error.
Second check: another model agreed
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Typo Ref. 17 prints the author's name as "P. Hedstrom" without the diacritic (Hedström).
- p. 6 References, ref. 17
P. Hedstrom, Mesolevel networks and the diffusion of social movements
Only the authors can say what is right here.
Judge's note: Rests on outside knowledge: the author's name is spelled Peter Hedström. Crop C004-a shows a plain 'o' in "Hedstrom". The page is a 2010 web (HTML) rendering of the article, which may have dropped the diacritic. Cosmetic only.
Second check: none (judge only)
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Typo Ref. 20 gives the journal as "J. Conf. Resl. 51, 905 (2007)", a non-standard abbreviation. The other entries use standard forms (Am. J. Sociol., Annu. Rev. Sociol., Phys. Rev. E).
- p. 7 References, ref. 20
J. Conf. Resl. 51, 905 (2007).
- p. 7 References and Notes, entry 20
J. Conf. Resl. 51, 905 (2007)
- p. 7
Homophily, cultural drift, and the co-evolution of cultural groups. J. Conf. Resl. 51, 905
Only the authors can say what is right here.
Judge's note: Rests on outside knowledge: the journal is the Journal of Conflict Resolution, whose standard abbreviation is "J. Conflict Resolut.". Crop C005-a shows "J. Conf. Resl." in italics, so this is not an extraction artefact. Cosmetic: the reference can still be identified.
Second check: none (judge only)