Individual Reinforcement and Social Reinforcement: Analytical Model of Individual Behavior in Social Context

Social cascades can be beneficial as well as harmful to the society itself. In order to understand the tendencies of such social dynamics, we designed an analytical model that considers the preference of individuals and the influence of social choices based on a binary choice model. To navigate the public away from a harmful cascade, it is important for leaders to slowdown the cascading effect as they think of ways to diverge public opinion. From our model we concluded that diverse opinions and the ability for individuals to think are important to dampen cascades to achieve a robust society.