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Main Author: Chang, Ho-Chun Herbert
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13334
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author Chang, Ho-Chun Herbert
author_facet Chang, Ho-Chun Herbert
contents Measuring social influence is difficult due to the lack of counter-factuals and comparisons. By combining machine learning-based modeling and network science, we present general properties of social value, a recent measure for social influence using synthetic control applicable to political behavior. Social value diverges from centrality measures on in that it relies on an external regressor to predict an output variable of interest, generates a synthetic measure of influence, then distributes individual contribution based on a social network. Through theoretical derivations, we show the properties of SV under linear regression with and without interaction, across lattice networks, power-law networks, and random graphs. A reduction in computation can be achieved for any ensemble model. Through simulation, we find that the generalized friendship paradox holds -- that in certain situations, your friends have on average more influence than you do.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_13334
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Measuring Social Influence with Networked Synthetic Control
Chang, Ho-Chun Herbert
Social and Information Networks
Machine Learning
Measuring social influence is difficult due to the lack of counter-factuals and comparisons. By combining machine learning-based modeling and network science, we present general properties of social value, a recent measure for social influence using synthetic control applicable to political behavior. Social value diverges from centrality measures on in that it relies on an external regressor to predict an output variable of interest, generates a synthetic measure of influence, then distributes individual contribution based on a social network. Through theoretical derivations, we show the properties of SV under linear regression with and without interaction, across lattice networks, power-law networks, and random graphs. A reduction in computation can be achieved for any ensemble model. Through simulation, we find that the generalized friendship paradox holds -- that in certain situations, your friends have on average more influence than you do.
title Measuring Social Influence with Networked Synthetic Control
topic Social and Information Networks
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13334