The contribution of movement to social network structure and spreading dynamics under simple and complex transmission

Abstract

The structure of social networks fundamentally influences spreading dynamics. In general, the more contact between individuals, the more opportunity there is for the transmission of information or disease to take place. Yet, contact between individuals, and any resulting transmission events, are determined by a combination of spatial (where individuals choose to move) and social rules (who they choose to interact with or learn from). Here, we examine the effect of the social–spatial interface on spreading dynamics using a simulation model. We quantify the relative effects of different movement rules (localized, semi-localized, nomadic and resource-based movement) and social transmission rules (simple transmission, anti-conformity, proportional, conformity and threshold rules) to both the structure of social networks and spread of a novel behaviour. Localized movement created weakly connected sparse networks, nomadic movement created weakly connected dense networks, and resource-based movement generated strongly connected modular networks. The resulting rate of spreading varied with different combinations of movement and transmission rules, but—importantly—the relative rankings of transmission rules changed when running simulations on static versus dynamic representations of networks. Our results emphasize that individual-level social and spatial behaviours influence emergent network structure, and are of particular consequence for the spread of information under complex transmission rules. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The spatial–social interface: a theoretical and empirical integration’.