Description
A major area of Professor Torfason's research is the behavior of individual social network structures. He studies the violation of norms – specifically the use of excessive force in conflict situations – within the empirical context of a large online video game. He has found that effect of network ties on behavior differs significantly when the ties are among members of the same formal organization within the game and when they span organizational boundaries. This and other of Professor Torfason's research projects rely on electronic trace data from virtual online environments, and he has a deep interest in both the methodological questions associated with the analysis of large-scale electronic data sets and the theoretical questions associated with studying behavior in environments that are not considered “real” in the conventional sense.
In another primary research stream, Professor Torfason investigates networked organizations. In a study of the institutional impact of networked organizations, he has focused on international organizations and the rise of democracy over nearly two centuries. His work documents the importance of international organizations in diffusing the cultural norms that promote the spread of democracy. In a separate study on the population dynamics of networked organizations, he has found that the foundation and failure of international organizations are closely related to the existing network structure of the states that could theoretically cofound them.
Professor Torfason has also examined the ecology of organizations by analyzing the prevalence of chain restaurants in different U.S. metropolitan areas. The results indicate that a primary characteristic of communities that support chains is demographic instability, suggesting that demographic stability has a key relationship with community identity.