Article: Investigating preferred relationship through fuzzy sets in social networking sites Journal: International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC) 2016 Vol.12 No.2 pp.165 - 179 Abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify the strength of socio-demographic factors that motivate a user to send friend request on social networks. The study is supported by a primary survey that identifies five factors of the user's namely, age, sex, mutual friends, school and relationship status which are important in sending friend request. Fuzzy numbers are used to represent the identified factors because they allow expert opinions, uncertainty and impreciseness to be incorporated into the model. A multiple input, single output (MISO) model has been developed using Mamdani fuzzy inference system (FIS) and sensitivity analysis has been done. The results obtained show how the fuzzy logic approach translates vague, ambiguous, qualitative and imprecise information into numerical terms, which helps to identify the most informative contents while sending friend request. The paper also integrates primary survey and expert judgement to gain a deeper insight about the social behaviour. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Investigating preferred relationship through fuzzy sets in social networking sites

Authors: Pradip Swarnakar; Ajay Kumar; Manak Wadhwa

Addresses: ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior, Gwalior – 474015, Madhya Pradesh, India ' ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior, Gwalior – 474015, Madhya Pradesh, India ' ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior, Gwalior – 474015, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify the strength of socio-demographic factors that motivate a user to send friend request on social networks. The study is supported by a primary survey that identifies five factors of the user's namely, age, sex, mutual friends, school and relationship status which are important in sending friend request. Fuzzy numbers are used to represent the identified factors because they allow expert opinions, uncertainty and impreciseness to be incorporated into the model. A multiple input, single output (MISO) model has been developed using Mamdani fuzzy inference system (FIS) and sensitivity analysis has been done. The results obtained show how the fuzzy logic approach translates vague, ambiguous, qualitative and imprecise information into numerical terms, which helps to identify the most informative contents while sending friend request. The paper also integrates primary survey and expert judgement to gain a deeper insight about the social behaviour.

Keywords: preferred relationships; fuzzy sets; SNS; social networking sites; fuzzy logic; linguistic variables; fuzzy numbers; age; sex; mutual friends; school; relationship status; friend requests; multiple input single output; MISO; fuzzy inference systems; FIS; social behaviour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2016.077260

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2016 Vol.12 No.2, pp.165 - 179

Accepted: 30 Sep 2015
Published online: 25 Jun 2016 *

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Title: Investigating preferred relationship through fuzzy sets in social networking sites

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