Effects of Opposition on the Diffusion of Complex Contagions in Social Networks: An Empirical Study

We study the diffusion of complex contagions on social networks in the presence of nodes that oppose the diffusion process. Unlike simple contagions, where a person acquires information or adopts a new ideology based on the influence of a single neighbor, the propagation of complex contagions requires multiple interactions with different neighbors. Our empirical results point out how network structure and opposing perspectives can alter the widespread adoption of social behaviors that can be modeled as complex contagions.