Network-distance decay of perceived online social support

2026-07-10

AI Summary

This study investigates how perceived social support decays with graph distance in online social networks. Leveraging two waves of survey data and user behavioral logs, the authors employ random forest modeling, multivariate regression, and agent-based simulation to demonstrate that the decay of perceived support follows a power-law distribution rather than a simple exponential form. The findings further reveal that individual heterogeneity contributes to an overall heavy-tailed distribution of support perception. Even after controlling for relevant covariates, perceived support remains significantly associated across multiple network hops, underscoring the importance of network positional heterogeneity in understanding psychological dynamics within online communities.

Abstract

Perceived social support can buffer stress, but how it is associated across online social networks at different graph distances remains unclear. Here we show that inferred perceived online social support in a large avatar communication application decays with network distance in a form better described, over the observed range, by a power-decay model than by a single exponential. We linked two-wave survey data from Pigg Party with behavioral logs, trained a random forest to infer perceived support for active users, and regressed Wave 2 scores on Wave 1 scores for users at hop distance $k$, adjusting for baseline support and covariates. Adjusted associations persisted across hops, consistent with power-law-like decay over the observed range. Individual-based simulations indicated that heterogeneous source-specific exponential decay rates can generate heavy-tailed aggregate decay. These results suggest that network position heterogeneity should be considered when characterizing distance-dependent associations among psychosocial states in online communities.

Problem

• perceived social support
• network distance
• online social networks
• distance decay
• psychosocial states

Innovation

• network-distance decay
• perceived social support
• power-law decay
• heterogeneous exponential decay
• online social networks