Departmental Papers (ASC)
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
11-2007
Publication Source
American Journal of Sociology
Volume
113
Issue
3
Start Page
702
Last Page
734
DOI
10.1086/521848
Abstract
The strength of weak ties is that they tend to be long—they connect socially distant locations, allowing information to diffuse rapidly. The authors test whether this “strength of weak ties” generalizes from simple to complex contagions. Complex contagions require social affirmation from multiple sources. Examples include the spread of high‐risk social movements, avant garde fashions, and unproven technologies. Results show that as adoption thresholds increase, long ties can impede diffusion. Complex contagions depend primarily on the width of the bridges across a network, not just their length. Wide bridges are a characteristic feature of many spatial networks, which may account in part for the widely observed tendency for social movements to diffuse spatially.
Copyright/Permission Statement
© 2007 by The University of Chicago Press.
Recommended Citation
Centola, D. (2007). Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 113 (3), 702-734. https://doi.org/10.1086/521848
Date Posted: 21 June 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Damon Centola was affiliated with Harvard University during the publication of this article.