Article: "Computer Network Structure Alone Can Affect Outcomes, Relationships And Behavior"

Science Daily posted a very interesting article on a series of experiments on social networks and persuasion. In summary, individuals were placed in a controlled social network, with a variable percent of the network they could see, and a decision to make: Red or Blue. They were given monetary incentive to make a decision, and some were given incentive to prefer one to the other. The objective: Build a global consensus. From the article:

The study revealed that not only could minority groups override the majority but could in fact facilitate global unity easier than a network that was evenly divided among red or blue. Kearns also found that the wealthiest players at the end of the experiments were those stubborn or stable players whose reluctance to change set the tone for the experiment.

In addition, the more aware participants were of the opposing preferences held by their neighbors, the more likely they were to reach a global consensus.

I was positing earlier tonight to a friend of mine in Indonesia that citizen journalism and social networks change the big picture of how people learn, decide and act. It's good to see research that supports these tools for a global community as valuable. The full article is here.