Experimental evidence for dynamic social impact: the emergence of subcultures in electronic groups

Electronic communication among spatially distributed individuals has a strong impact on society and culture. Electronic communication leads to phenomena such as clustering of social groups, correlation among unrelated issues, consolidation of minorities, and continuing diversity. Social influence is a function of strength, immediacy, and number of sources of influence in a situation. Through changes in communication channels, organizations influence opinion diversity to sustain a common culture. The adoption of hierarchical geometry by neural networks helps develop minority and majority perspectives.