{"id":4484,"date":"2019-11-26T08:39:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T12:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=4484"},"modified":"2022-03-11T16:18:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T20:18:19","slug":"preferential-attachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/","title":{"rendered":"Preferential Attachment: Why The Rich Get Richer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is preferential attachment? Who benefits from preferential attachment? Who loses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preferential attachment is <strong>the innate human tendency to flock to past successes, regardless of whether those successes are the product of merit or chance.<\/strong> Preferential attachment is a form of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cumulative-advantage\/\">cumulative advantage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll cover examples of preferential attachment, look at how it increases inequality in society, and discover when it&#8217;s wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Preferential Attachment Example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider research scholarship. Sociologist Robert K. Merton has observed that academics rarely read all the papers they cite; rather, they look at the bibliography of a paper they <em>have <\/em>read and pick sources to cite more or less at random.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now imagine a scholar cites three authors at random. Then a second scholar cites those same three authors, because the first author cited them. Then a third does the same thing. Suddenly the three authors that have been cited are considered leaders in their field, all by dint of dumb luck.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The phenomenon identified by Merton\u2019s study has been called both \u201ccumulative advantage\u201d and \u201cpreferential attachment.\u201d These concepts describe<strong> the innate human tendency to flock to past successes, regardless of whether those successes are the product of merit or chance.<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although cumulative advantage\/preferential attachment provides a better account of unfairness than the superstar effect\u2014because it accounts for randomness in the distribution of advantage\/preference\u2014it still isn\u2019t a perfect theory of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/extremistan\/\">Extremistan<\/a> unfairness. This is because, according to cumulative advantage\/preferential attachment, winners stay on top. Once an entity\u2014a company, an academic, a professional sports coach\u2014reaches a certain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/levels-of-success\/\">level of success<\/a>, cumulative advantage\/preferential attachments holds that that entity will <em>continue <\/em>to be successful, because humans naturally favor past success. But this doesn\u2019t reflect reality.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, according to cumulative advantage\/preferential attachment, Apple will forever be the king of consumer electronics, and Google will forever own the Internet. But even a cursory knowledge of business history shows a belief like this to be misguided. Consider this: If you tracked the 500 largest U.S. companies from 1957 to 1997, you\u2019d discover that only <em>74 <\/em>lasted the full 40 years. Some ceased to exist by virtue of mergers, but most simply failed. <strong>In other words, even in Extremistan, giants can occasionally be toppled by dwarfs<\/strong>.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless, despite the possibility of creative destruction, Extremistan is defined by extreme <em>concentration<\/em>\u2014of prestige, income, capital, influence, size, or what have you. <strong>These concentrations create the <em>appearance<\/em> of stability\u2014larger, more powerful entities are more resilient\u2014but they actually create the potential for catastrophic black swans<\/strong>. This is the problem with the theory of preferential attachment.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The example par excellence of the risks of concentration is the banking industry. The explosive growth and interrelation of the major global financial institutions were the catalysts for the Great Recession of 2008.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: The popularity of <em>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/black-swan-theory\/\">Black Swan<\/a> <\/em>is due, in large part, to Taleb\u2019s clairvoyance about the vulnerabilities of the financial industry. The book was published in April 2007, before the worst of the crisis, yet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/nassim-nicholas-taleb\/\">Taleb<\/a> describes the contours of that crisis with eerie precision.)<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most far-reaching unfairness of Extremistan, however, more so than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/global-economic-inequality\/\">economic inequality<\/a>, is inequality in intellectual influence. As illustrated by Merton\u2019s citation example just above, intellectual influence can be a matter of dumb luck rather than ability or insightfulness. This problem becomes acute when we trust thought leaders\u2014\u201dexperts\u201d\u2014with our lives and livelihoods. Preferential attachment is a problem when it&#8217;s happening and when it fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Contours of Extremistan<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Although one needs only an intuitive sense of phenomena like wealth and market returns to understand that they don\u2019t adhere to the same rules as phenomena like height and weight, throughout the book Taleb provides a robust theoretical and statistical scaffolding for his claims about the differences between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mediocristan\/\">Mediocristan<\/a> and Extremistan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Unfairness in Extremistan<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As exemplified by figures like Beyonc\u00e9 and Jeff Bezos, social and economic advantages accrue highly unequally in Extremistan. These are further examples of the power of preferential attachment.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One reason for this disparity is the \u201csuperstar effect.\u201d Coined by economist Sherwin Rosen to describe the unequal distributions of income and prestige in Extremistan sectors like stand-up comedy, classical music, and research scholarship, the \u201csuperstar effect\u201d operates when marginal differences in talent yield massive rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/superstar-effect\/\">superstar effect<\/a>, it\u2019s vital to note, is meritocratic\u2014that is, those with the most talent, even if they\u2019re only slightly more talented than their competitors, get the spoils. <strong>What a theory like Rosen\u2019s fails to take into account, however, is that all-important aspect of life in Extremistan: <em>dumb luck<\/em><\/strong>. The superstar effect is often made stronger through preferential attachment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is preferential attachment? Who benefits from preferential attachment? Who loses? Preferential attachment is the innate human tendency to flock to past successes, regardless of whether those successes are the product of merit or chance. Preferential attachment is a form of cumulative advantage. We&#8217;ll cover examples of preferential attachment, look at how it increases inequality in society, and discover when it&#8217;s wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-4484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-society","tag-black-swan","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preferential Attachment: Why The Rich Get Richer - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Preferential attachment is the innate human tendency to flock to past successes, regardless of whether those successes are the product of merit or chance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preferential Attachment: Why The Rich Get Richer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Preferential attachment is the innate human tendency to flock to past successes, regardless of whether those successes are the product of merit or chance.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-26T12:39:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-11T20:18:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/swan-preferential-attachment.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"778\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"517\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amanda Penn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amanda Penn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Amanda Penn\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/01b0e4c9ddb993e51d03808839d538b0\"},\"headline\":\"Preferential Attachment: Why The Rich Get Richer\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-26T12:39:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-11T20:18:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/\"},\"wordCount\":784,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/swan-preferential-attachment.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Black Swan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/preferential-attachment\/\",\"name\":\"Preferential Attachment: Why The Rich Get Richer - 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