Social Networks, Altruism and Information Diffusion

Information can be easily spread through social connections by targeting central individuals in the network. Different standard centrality measures (SCMs) are used to select these central nodes. The SCMs, however, are based on the network topology—shaped only by the number of connections— and fail to incorporate the intrinsic motivations of the informants. In this study, we introduce an augmented centrality measure (ACM) that modifies the eigenvector centrality measure (ECM) by weighting the ties of connected individuals with their altruism levels. Using primary data collected from 3,693 high school students in Ethiopia, we show that selecting informants based on ACM allows for effective information diffusion—when the information concerns environmental issues. Differently, we found no significant association between ECM and information diffusion. The results suggest the importance of considering both the network position and the behavioral attributes of informants to spread relevant information to a broader society