Human group formation in online guilds and offline gangs driven by a common team dynamic

被引：48

作者：

Johnson, Neil F. ^{[1
]}

Xu, Chen ^{[2
,3
]}

Zhao, Zhenyuan ^{[1
]}

Ducheneaut, Nicolas ^{[4
]}

Yee, Nicholas ^{[4
]}

Tita, George ^{[5
]}

Hui, Pak Ming ^{[3
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Miami, Dept Phys, Miami, FL 33126 USA

[2] Suzhou Univ, Jiangsu Key Lab Thin Films, Sch Phys Sci & Technol, Suzhou 215006, Peoples R China

[3] Chinese Univ Hong Kong, Dept Phys, Shatin, Hong Kong, Peoples R China

[4] Xerox Corp, Palo Alto Res Ctr, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA

[5] Univ Calif Irvine, Dept Criminol Law & Soc, Irvine, CA 92697 USA

来源：

PHYSICAL REVIEW E | 2009年 / 79卷 / 06期

关键词：

complex networks; group theory; social networking (online); social sciences;

D O I：

10.1103/PhysRevE.79.066117

中图分类号：

O35 [流体力学]; O53 [等离子体物理学];

学科分类号：

070204 ; 080103 ; 080704 ;

摘要：

Quantifying human group dynamics represents a unique challenge. Unlike animals and other biological systems, humans form groups in both real (offline) and virtual (online) spaces-from potentially dangerous street gangs populated mostly by disaffected male youths to the massive global guilds in online role-playing games for which membership currently exceeds tens of millions of people from all possible backgrounds, age groups, and genders. We have compiled and analyzed data for these two seemingly unrelated offline and online human activities and have uncovered an unexpected quantitative link between them. Although their overall dynamics differ visibly, we find that a common team-based model can accurately reproduce the quantitative features of each simply by adjusting the average tolerance level and attribute range for each population. By contrast, we find no evidence to support a version of the model based on like-seeking-like (i.e., kinship or "homophily").

引用

页数：11

共 32 条

[1] Modeling infectious diseases dissemination through online role-playing games [J].