First Monday

	This month: September 2010 Bubbles, gullibility, and other challenges for economics, psychology, sociology, and information sciences Gullibility is the principal cause of bubbles. Investors and the general public get snared by a “beautiful illusion” and throw caution to the wind. Attempts to identify and control bubbles are complicated by the fact that the authorities who might naturally be expected to take action have often (especially in recent years) been among the most gullible, and were cheerleaders for the exuberant behavior. Hence what is needed is an objective measure of gullibility. This paper argues that it should be possible to develop such a measure. The proposed gullibility index might help in developing realistic economic models. It should also assist in illuminating and guiding decision–making.

	Also this month! A manifesto for modeling and measurement in social media Online social networks (OSNs) have been the subject of a great deal of study in recent years. The majority of these studies have used simple models, such as node–and–edge graphs, to describe data. These models, which necessarily limit the structures that can be described and omit temporal information, are insufficient to describe and study OSNs. Instead, this paper proposes that a richer class of Entity Interaction Network models should be adopted.


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