Randomized experiments to detect and estimate social influence in networks

Understand

Estimation of social influence in networks can be substantially biased in observational studies due to homophily and network correlation in exposure to exogenous events.

• Randomized experiments, in which the researcher intervenes in the social system and uses randomization to determine how to do so, provide a methodology for credibly estimating of causal effects of social behaviors.
• In addition to addressing questions central to the social sciences, these estimates can form the basis for effective marketing and public policy.
• In this review, we discuss the design space of experiments to measure social influence through combinations of interventions and randomizations.