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

Abstract EN

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 number R and the view numberV of a thread in a subforum obey the power-law distributions P(R)=Rα and P(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 between R and V also obeys the power-law function R∝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.