Preferential Attachment & the Matthew Effect
Robert K. Merton / Derek de Solla Price · 1968
"Merton's Matthew Effect — 'to those who have, more will be given' — and its network formalization, preferential attachment, explain why early advantages compound into durable hubs: newcomers disproportionately link to already popular nodes."
Merton noticed in 1968 that already famous scientists get disproportionate credit for joint work — the same result by a newcomer gets ignored. Price and Barabási later showed networks grow the same way.
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Threshold Models & Cascades
"Threshold models show identical groups can tip at very different points even with similar average preferences — because cascades depend on the distribution of thresholds, not just the mean, and a few low-threshold early actors determine whether contagion tips."