Fig. 2

Information spreading equality of different network models. We plot the spreading equality with low and high minority seeding portions. Each plot is a heatmap, where the x-axis represents the relative time t/T, the y-axis represents the different models, and the color represents \(\Delta I(t/T)\). Recall that \(\Delta I(t/T) = 0\) represents equality. When the minority seeding portion is low, \(\Delta I(t/T)\) is initially positive (i.e., the majority group has a greater advantage); it then decreases to 0 for all models. When the minority seeding portion is high, \(\Delta I(t/T)\) is initially negative (i.e., the minority group has a greater advantage). Under symmetric transmission, \(\Delta I(t/T)\) increases to 0. However under asymmetric transmission, \(\Delta I(t/T)\) increases to 0, then becomes positive, and eventually becomes 0. We observe that regardless of the contagion type and the seeding condition, Homophily BA and Random Homophily take longer to reach \(\Delta I(t/T) = 0\), indicating less equality. On the contrary, Diversified Homophily BA and Diversified Homophily reach \(\Delta I(t/T) = 0\) faster, sometimes even faster than Random Network and BA, indicating more equality. The differences between the models are more pronounced under complex contagion