An ILS algorithm to evaluate structural balance in signed social networks

Evaluating balance in a social network has been a challenge for social network researchers. The degree of balance in a social group can be used as a tool to study whether and how this group evolves to a possible balanced state. In particular, the solution of the Correlation Clustering (CC) problem can be used as a criterion to measure the amount of balance in signed social networks, where positive (friendly) and negative (antagonistic) interactions take place. In this work, we provide an efficient solution of the CC problem by the use of the ILS metaheuristic. The proposed algorithm outperforms other solution strategies from literature in execution time, with the same solution quality.

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