Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation
The work
| Authors | Duncan J. Watts; Peter Sheridan Dodds |
|---|---|
| Editors | |
| Type | article |
| Year | 2007 |
| Citekey | watts2007influentials |
Where it appeared
| Published in | Journal of Consumer Research |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 441--458 |
Identifiers
| DOI | 10.1086/518527 |
|---|---|
| OpenAlex | W2150375325 |
Access
| Landing page | https://doi.org/10.1086/518527 |
|---|
From OpenAlex, which stores abstracts as an index of words and their positions: what is shown is rebuilt from that, and reads fluently whether or not it is what the author wrote.
Abstract
A central idea in marketing and diffusion research is that influentials—a minority of individuals who influence an exceptional number of their peers—are important to the formation of public opinion. Here we examine this idea, which we call the “influentials hypothesis,” using a series of computer simulations of interpersonal influence processes. Under most conditions that we consider, we find that large cascades of influence are driven not by influentials but by a critical mass of easily influenced individuals. Although our results do not exclude the possibility that influentials can be important, they suggest that the influentials hypothesis requires more careful specification and testing than it has received.
How it got here
| How it got here | agent via openalex |
|---|---|
| Added | 2026-10-29 13:38 UTC |
| Not denied by | a person 2026-10-29 17:12 UTC |
Cite it as
@article{watts2007influentials,
title = {Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation},
author = {Duncan J. Watts and Peter Sheridan Dodds},
year = {2007},
journal = {Journal of Consumer Research},
publisher = {Oxford University Press},
volume = {34},
number = {4},
pages = {441--458},
doi = {10.1086/518527},
}
This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/watts2007influentials/ and will keep doing so.