VIP-club phenomenon: emergence of elites and masterminds in social networks

Abstract

Hubs, or vertices with large degrees, play massive roles in, for example, epidemic dynamics, innovation diffusion, and synchronization on networks. However, costs of owning edges can motivate agents to decrease their degrees and avoid becoming hubs, whereas they would somehow like to keep access to a major part of the network. By analyzing a model and tennis players' partnership networks, we show that combination of vertex fitness and homophily yields a VIP club made of elite vertices that are influential but not easily accessed from the majority. Intentionally formed VIP members can even serve as masterminds, which manipulate hubs to control the entire network without exposing themselves to a large mass. From conventional viewpoints based on network topology and edge direction, elites are not distinguished from many other vertices. Understanding network data is far from sufficient; individualistic factors greatly affect network structure and functions per se.

arXiv comment15 pages (double spaced) + 5 figures, Social Networks, in press

References in corpus (12)

• Statistical mechanics of complex networks
• The structure and function of complex networks
• Epidemic spreading in scale-free networks
• The architecture of complex weighted networks
• Universal Behavior of Load Distribution in Scale-free Networks
• Identity and Search in Social Networks
• Bose-Einstein condensation in complex networks
• The Rich-Club Phenomenon In The Internet Topology
• Class of correlated random networks with hidden variables
• Competition in Social Networks: Emergence of a Scale-free Leadership Structure and Collective Efficiency
• Geographical threshold graphs with small-world and scale-free properties
• Analysis of scale-free networks based on a threshold graph with intrinsic vertex weights

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Structure and dynamics of core-periphery networks
• Rich-cores in networks
• Introduction to correlation networks: Interdisciplinary approaches beyond thresholding
• Rich-Club Ordering and the Dyadic Effect: Two Interrelated Phenomena
• Random Networks with given Rich-club Coefficient
• Generalised thresholding of hidden variable network models with scale-free property
• Ensembles related to the rich-club coefficient for non-evolving networks
• Network Null Model based on Maximal Entropy and the Rich-Club
• Sequence Nets
• Spectral Properties of the Threshold Network Model
• Statistical properties of a generalized threshold network model