Abstract
Hubs, or vertices with large degrees, play massive roles in, for example,
epidemic dynamics, innovation diffusion, and synchronization on networks.
However, costs of owning edges can motivate agents to decrease their
degrees and avoid becoming hubs, whereas they would somehow like
to keep access to a major part of the network. By analyzing a model
and tennis players' partnership networks, we show that combination
of vertex fitness and homophily yields a VIP-club made of elite vertices
that are influential but not easily accessed from the majority. Intentionally
formed VIP members can even serve as masterminds, which manipulate
hubs to control the entire network without exposing themselves to
a large mass. If based on network topology only, elites are not distinguished
from many other vertices. Understanding network data is far from
sufficient; individualistic factors greatly affect network structure
and functions per se.
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