Mechanisms of Behavioral Contagion: An Approximate Bayesian Approach

Researchers have proposed that contagion processes govern how information and behavior itself spreads through social networks. Empirical evidence for such contagion often makes unjustified, but implicit assumptions about the mechanisms underlying contagion. Here, we present an approximate Bayesian method that uses empirical data to draw inferences about the underlying mechanisms. We provide initial validation of our approach in three simulation experiments, each investigating how a real-world factor (e.g., noise) impacts inferential accuracy.