Cultural evolution theory suggests that prestige bias (whereby individuals preferentially learn from prestigious figures) has played a key role in human ecological success. However, its impact within online environments remains unclear, particularly regarding whether reposts by prestigious individuals amplify diffusion more effectively than reposts by non-influential users. Here, we analyzed over 55 million posts and 520 million reposts on Twitter (currently X) to examine whether users with high influence scores (hg-index) more effectively amplified the reach of others' content. Our findings indicate that posts shared by influencers were more likely to be further shared compared to those shared by non-influencers. This effect persisted over time, especially in viral posts. Moreover, a small group of highly influential users accounted for approximately half of the information flow within repost cascades. These findings demonstrate a prestige bias in information diffusion within digital society, suggesting that cognitive biases shape content spread through reposting.

翻译：文化演化理论认为，声望偏见（即个体倾向于从有声望的人物处学习）在人类生态成功中发挥了关键作用。然而，其在网络环境中的影响尚不明确，尤其是有声望个体的转发是否比非影响力用户的转发更能有效放大传播。本研究通过分析Twitter（现为X平台）上超过5500万条帖子和5.2亿次转发数据，检验具有高影响力得分（hg指数）的用户是否能更有效地放大他人内容的传播范围。研究发现，相较于非影响力者转发的帖子，由影响力者转发的帖子更可能被进一步分享。这种效应随时间持续存在，在病毒式传播的帖子中尤为明显。此外，一小群高影响力用户贡献了转发级联中约半数信息流。这些发现揭示了数字社会中信息传播存在的声望偏见，表明认知偏见通过转发行为塑造了内容的扩散模式。