Researchers have found that although external attacks, exogenous shocks, and node knockouts can disrupt networked systems, they rarely lead to the system’s collapse. Although these processes are widely understood, most studies of how exogenous shocks affect networks rely on simulated or observational data. Thus, little is known about how groups of real individuals respond to external attacks. In this article, we employ an experimental design in which exogenous shocks, in the form of the unexpected removal of a teammate, are imposed on small teams of people who know each other. This allows us to causally identify the removed individual’s contribution to the team structure, the effect that an individual had on those they were connected, and the effect of the node knockout on the team. At the team level, we find that node knockouts decrease overall internal team communication. At the individual level, we find that node knockouts cause the remaining influential players to become more influential, while the remaining peripheral players become more isolated within their team. In addition, we also find that node knockouts may have a nominal influence on team performance. These findings shed light on how teams respond and adapt to node knockouts.

研究人员发现，虽然外部攻击、外源冲击和节点淘汰可以破坏网络系统，但它们很少导致系统崩溃。尽管这些过程已广为人知，但大多数关于外生冲击如何影响网络的研究都依赖于模拟或观测数据。因此，人们对真实个体群体如何应对外部攻击知之甚少。在本文中，我们采用了一种实验设计，其中以意外移除队友的形式对彼此认识的小团队施加外部冲击。这使我们能够因果地识别被移除的个人对团队结构的贡献，个人对他们所连接的人的影响，以及节点淘汰赛对团队的影响。在团队层面，我们发现节点淘汰会降低整体内部团队沟通。在个人层面，我们发现节点淘汰会导致剩余的有影响力的球员变得更有影响力，而剩余的外围球员在他们的团队中变得更加孤立。此外，我们还发现节点淘汰赛可能对团队绩效产生名义上的影响。这些发现揭示了团队如何应对和适应节点淘汰赛。