Majority illusion

In mathematics, the majority illusion or majority paradox is a math paradox that explain how bias are created. It applies to social media and it has a connection with graph theory, data science and statistics.

 History 
It was first proposed by Kristina Lerman, Principal Information Scientist and mathematician at the University of Southern California. 

 Explanation 
Using graph theory we can imagine a network of 10 people, where 8 believe that God exists, and 2 that it does not exist. If a God believer is friend of those 2 who does not believe in God, that person will think that the majority are not believers, while the number of people of people believing that God exists quadruples the number of people who does not.

As Eduardo Saénz, Spanish mathematician said, "using complex data science and statistics, we can create algorithms which provide help for understanding complex networks, such as social media".

 Twitter 
On Twitter, this illusion is often displayed.  In 2020, a movement start growing in social media to pass from bots in order to do not give them support.

 References 

Category:Mathematical paradoxes
Category:Graph theory
Category:Bias