COMET: Weak-tie hypothesis in complex digital networks

This project, funded by the Research Council of Finland for 2024-28, focuses on studying how innovations spread in social networks. Social network theory predicts that innovations and new ideas spread most effectively through individuals who are loosely connected in networks. Numerous observations from a range of fields support this theory, but their evidence is mainly based on very small networks. This cross-disciplinary project tests the validity of the theory by examining how linguistic innovations spread in extremely large social media networks. The group brings together leading computational humanities experts, sociolinguists and computer scientists.

In addition to advancing basic research, this project leads to considerable societal impact, since the technical tools developed can be used to model the spread of disinformation in social media effectively.