Power-Law Properties of Human View and ReplyBehavior in Online Society

摘要

Statistical properties of the human comment behavior are studied using data from “Tianya” and “Tieba” which are very popular online social systems (orforums) in China. We find that both the reply numberRand the view numberVof a thread in a subforum obey the power-law distributionsP(R)=RαandP(V)∝Vβ, respectively, which indicates that there exists a kind of highly populartopics. These topics should be specially paid much attention, because they playan important role in the public opinion formation and the public opinion control. In addition, the relationship betweenRandValso obeys the power-law functionR∝Vγ. Based on the human comment habit, a model is introduced to explainthe human view and reply behaviors in the forum. Numerical simulations of themodel fit well with the empirical results. Our findings are helpful for discoveringcollective patterns of human behaviors and the evolution of public opinions on thevirtual society as well as the real one.