Gossip Spread in Social Network Models

Gossip almost inevitably arises in real social networks. In this article we investigate the relationship between the number of friends of a person and limits on how far gossip about that person can spread in the network. How far gossip travels in a network depends on two sets of factors: a) factors determining gossip transmission from one person to the next and b) factors determining network topology. For a simple model where gossip is spread among people who know the victim it is known that a standard scale-free network model produces a nonmonotonic relationship between number of friends and expected relative spread of gossip, a pattern that is also observed in real networks [1]. Here, we study gossip spread in two social network models [2,3] by exploring the parameter space of both models and fitting them to a real Facebook data set. Both models can produce the non-monotonic relationship of real networks more accurately than a standard scale-free model while also exhibiting more realistic variability in gossip spread. Of the two models, the one given in [3] best captures both the expected values and variability of gossip spread.