Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market.

Salganik, M. J., Dodds, P. S., & Watts, D. J. (2006). Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market. Science, 311(5762), 854-856.

Type

Journal article

Intellectual base

Primary research

Year

2006

DOI

10.1126/science.1121066

Link

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1121066

Cited from

behavioral_economics

Cited by

3 citations across 3 artifacts.

Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.

Primes

• Herding Behavior
  • Misinformation cascades exploit the same structure: an early false claim gets shared, which signals credibility to later sharers, which produces more sharing, independent of factual verification.

    This sourceControlled experiment showing that observability of others' choices in a music-download market dramatically increased outcome inequality and reduced predictability of cultural success.

• Information Cascade
  • An early restaurant patron's choice cascades through later arrivals; an early investor's decision cascades through fund flows; an early academic citation cascades through the citation network; an early social-media user's post cascades into viral diffusion.

    This sourceControlled experiment showing that observability of others' choices in a music-download market dramatically increased outcome inequality and reduced predictability of cultural success.

Mechanisms

• Hidden or Delayed Popularity Counts
  • Its strength is surgical: it removes the anchoring power of a number at the one moment it distorts judgment, protecting cold-start items and stripping out bandwagon behavior, while leaving the content fully visible.

    This sourceFinds that visible information about others’ choices amplifies cumulative social influence even when participants evaluate the same content.

Verification

This reference passed the adversarial substantiation pipeline: it was checked to exist and to support the claim it is attached to. See how references were verified.

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