Modeling the efficacy of targeted campaigns when disseminating family planning information

Abstract

We use social networks theory to investigate how information is disseminated for contraceptive methods among families in a social structure. Our approach demonstrates that targeted schemes in social networks will not necessarily allow faster and more efficient spread of information as compared to random campaigns, in contrast with prevailing notion on network theory. Targeted propagation refers to the dynamics wherein the next individuals to be influenced is connected to the previous person contacted. We point to "bandwagon" type of behavior, where neighbors are generally influenced by majority of their neighbors, as the unique dynamics that differentiate family planning information spreading, for instance, to the more extensively studied case of epidemic spreading.