Evolutionary Game Theory Applications for Social Network Analysis

ANNOTATION The object of research was social networks in the context of their role in modern world. The subject of the research was the principles of the user's decision on the strategy of behavior in social networks, as well as modeling of these strategies. The aim of this paper was to investigate the application of the evolutionary game theory (EGT) models to social interaction analisys. In order to achieve this goal, the following tasks have been accomplished: an analytical substantiation of the possibility of analysing online social networks as communication networks in general was provided, an interpretation of the social network’s attributes in the frame of game-theoretic approach was suggested, existing examples and applications of the evolutionary game theory models were analysed, and, finally, the practical example of using the EGT model in analyzing the users’ activity in the social network Facebook was suggested. Practical application of the EGT model in the analysis was presented basing on the example of research of the competitive relations between two construction companies in social networks. Based on the modeling of this competitive situation, the conclusion about the optimality of the chosen strategies was made, and the proof for choosing a strategy from the standpoint of the evolutionary game theory was given. In the final part of the paper, the effectiveness of using this approach for analyzing social interaction was assessed. The uniqueness of this research lies in the analysing the interaction in social networks using instruments primarily used in biology and ecology for modeling behavior of the populations. The results of this research can be used as an additional basis for choosing the most effective communication strategy by commercial enterprises, which results in the growth of customer loyalty and the company's profit increase.