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The Majority Illusion in Social Networks
Individuals often lack global knowledge of the behaviors of others and must estimate them from the observations of their friends' behaviors.
In some cases, the structure of the [surrounding] social network can dramatically skew an individual's local observations, making a behavior appear far more common locally than it is globally.
"Majority illusion" may facilitate the spread of social contagions in networks and also explain why systematic biases in social perceptions, for example, of risky behavior, arise.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03022
In some cases, the structure of the [surrounding] social network can dramatically skew an individual's local observations, making a behavior appear far more common locally than it is globally.
"Majority illusion" may facilitate the spread of social contagions in networks and also explain why systematic biases in social perceptions, for example, of risky behavior, arise.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03022