How do videos and images go viral? Researchers built a mathematical model to find out. Photo by Potstock/Shutterstock

ABERDEEN, Scotland, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Researchers all over the world are working to understand the spread of diseases like dengue, Ebola, Zika and others, but diseases aren't the only things that go viral.

Researchers are also on a quest to understand another kind virality -- how and why images, videos and text gain wide and rapid exposure on the Internet.


Researchers in Scotland, England and Colombia have created the first mathematical model, adapted from epidemic models, to study the nature of information virality.

The model explores the factors that influence whether or not an idea or piece of information will be accepted and gain momentum among a sizable group of consumers.

"Mathematical models proposed in the past typically neglected the synergistic effects of acquaintances and were unable to explain explosive contagion, but we show that these effects are ultimately responsible for whether something catches on quickly," researcher Francisco Perez-Reche, a computer scientist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, explained in a press release.

"In very basic terms our model shows that people's opposition to accept a new idea acts as a barrier to large contagion, until the transmission of the phenomenon becomes strong enough to overcome that reluctance -- at this point, explosive contagion happens," Perez-Reche said.

Researchers say that while social media plays an important role in enabling virality, it is the idea or piece of information's intrinsic value and its adoption or acceptance by a critical number of people that are most essential to going viral.

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The new model -- detailed in the journal Scientific Reports -- could help those trying to inspire social change or promote their business's products.

"[Our model] could lead to better strategies to minimise the risk of sudden and often unexpected epidemics of undesired social behaviour," Perez-Reche said. "Similarly, it will suggest methods to engineer explosive diffusion of innovative products and ideas."