Comparing information diffusion mechanisms by matching on cascade size

• https://www.pnas.org/content/118/46/e2100786118
• https://twitter.com/jonassjuul/status/1457819229118468107

See also Vosoughi2018spread

This paper used matching to study whether Information spreading pattern is different across multiple types of spreading such as true vs. false news.

They showed that the real vs. fake news are indistinguishable upon controlling for the size of the cascade, whereas different dynamics (e.g., Independent cascade model and SIR model) can be distinguishable.

One implication is that controlling the spread of fake news may be all about controlling the “infectiousness” because that’s what determines the characteristics of cascades.