Wired: Social media, locusts, and groupthink

A friend recently forwarded me this short blip from Wired about how scientists applied an adaptive network model to examine the links between mutually aware insects, creating a better predictor of when locusts will swarm. Whoa.

Basically, the study revealed that “The more time locusts spend moving together in the same direction, the harder it is for the group to reverse course, which leads to swarming. Sound familiar? People get stuck in groups that turn into frenzied action, but for us, these clusters are built around common interests, politics, and background.”

I found this really fascinating in relation to market research, in that the adaptive network model can show how people start to think like their social networks. Why do brands want so many “likes,” for instance? At the heart of it, it’s so that networks can start to swarm. After doing some super serious Googling of “adaptive network model,” I found an article written by a couple of Stanford researchers which gave a nice lit review/ overview of the theory. They wrote that in an adaptive network model:

“Presentation of a stimulus pattern to the system corresponds to activating a set of sensory units. These units pass their weighted activation along their connections either directly to the output units or to intermediate units that relay them onward, eventually terminating on output units… By repeatedly cycling through a set of desired input-output pairings, the system “learns” just those weights that will achieve the closest match (of which it is capable) to the input-output pairings.”

This is obviously ridiculous and I had to read it like five times to get it, so let’s put that in terms of “liking” on Facebook. When a person “likes” GutCheck on Facebook, it appears in his or her newsfeed. If enough of his or her friends get curious and “like” GutCheck, too, the page goes viral until eventually it’s run its course. As we start to see the this enough, we can see what kinds of grouped interests and shared “likes” people have — showing you when and why people will swarm on certain pages, brands, or videos of cats yelling at printers. Pretty cool application of theory, right? [ETA: Check out this "anatomy of a Facebook Fan" infographic -- cool stuff.]

*Incidentally, if you haven’t liked us on Facebook yet, you probably should. Updates on product, interesting reads, and some important questions. Like “who’s your favorite Muppet?“