The Role of Susceptible Individuals in Spreading Dynamics

Exploring the internal mechanism of information spreading is critical for understanding and controlling the process. Traditional spreading models often assume individuals play the same role in the spreading process. In reality, however, individuals’ diverse characteristics contribute differently to the spreading performance, leading to a heterogeneous infection rate across the system. To investigate network spreading dynamics under heterogeneous infection rates, we integrate two individual-level features—influence (i.e., the ability to influence neighbors) and susceptibility (i.e., the extent to be influenced by neighbors)—into the independent cascade model. Our findings reveal significant differences in spreading performance under heterogeneous and constant infection rates, with traditional structural centrality metrics proving more effective in the latter scenario. Additionally, we take the constant and heterogeneous infection rates into a state-of-the-art maximization algorithm, the well-known TIM algorithm, and find the seeds selected by heterogeneous infection rates are more dispersed compared to those under constant rates. Lastly, we find that both individuals’ influence and susceptibility are vital to the spreading performance. Strikingly, susceptible individuals are particularly important to spreading when information is disseminated by social celebrities. By integrating influence and susceptibility into the spreading model, we gain a more profound understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving information spreading.