Close and ordinary social contacts: How important are they in promoting large-scale contagion?
Close and ordinary social contacts: How important are they in promoting large-scale contagion?
An outstanding problem of interdisciplinary interest is to understand quantitatively the role of social contacts in contagion dynamics. In general, there are two types of contacts: close ones among friends, colleagues and family members, etc., and ordinary contacts from encounters with strangers. Typically, social reinforcement occurs for close contacts. Taking …