# Competition-induced criticality in a model of meme popularity

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1305.4328 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1305.4328/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 19 May 2013.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Studying Fake News Spreading, Polarisation Dynamics, and Manipulation by Bots: a Tale of Networks and Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.07909/) (2021)
- [Towards Learning Self-Organized Criticality of Rydberg Atoms using Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.08927/) (2022)
- [Fast Response or Silence: Conversation Persistence in an AI-Agent Social Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07667/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Heavy-tailed distributions of meme popularity occur naturally in a model of meme diffusion on social networks. Competition between multiple memes for the limited resource of user attention is identified as the mechanism that poises the system at criticality. The popularity growth of each meme is described by a critical branching process, and asymptotic analysis predicts power-law distributions of popularity with very heavy tails (exponent α<2, unlike preferential-attachment models), similar to those seen in empirical data.