Nicholas Christakis discusses Coronavirus epidemiology at the GIM Town Hall Meeting.

“We each carry within us an evolutionary blueprint for making a good society.” Nicholas Christakis

In Blueprint, Nicholas A. Christakis introduces the compelling idea that our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviors, but also the ways in which we make societies, ones that are surprisingly similar worldwide. With many vivid examples -- including diverse historical and contemporary cultures, shipwrecked sailors, commune dwellers, online groups, and even the social arrangements of elephants and dolphins that so resemble our own -- Christakis shows that, despite a human history replete with violence, we cannot escape our social blueprint for goodness.

What distinguishes humans is social learning — and teaching. Crucial to learning and teaching is the value of free expression. And we need political leaders who support environments of social peace and cooperation.

Marcus Alexander talks about the Microbiome Biology and Social Networks in the Developing World project.

Marcus Alexander works as a research scientist in the Human Nature Lab at the Yale Institute for Network Science. His research focuses on the genomics of social networks, the evolution of human cooperation, and large-scale field interventions that improve and extend human life.

Learn more about Marcus Alexander: http://humannaturelab.net/peop...

Recorded 3/15/18 at Harvard Medical School Department of Biomedical Informatics. Human beings choose their friends, and often their neighbors, and co-workers, and we inherit our relatives; and each of the people to whom we are connected also does the same, such that, in the end, we humans assemble ourselves into face-to-face social networks.  Why do we do this?  And how might a deep understanding of human social network structure and function be used to intervene in the world to make it better?  Here, I review recent research from our lab describing three classes of interventions involving both offline and online networks that can help make the world better: (1) interventions that rewire the connections between people; (2) interventions that manipulate social contagion, facilitating the flow of desirable properties within groups; and (3) interventions that manipulate the position of groups of people within network structures.  I will illustrate what can be done using a variety of experiments in settings as diverse as fostering cooperation in networked groups online, to fostering health behavior change in developing world villages, to facilitating the diffusion of innovation or coordination in groups.  I will also focus on recent experiments with “hybrid systems” comprised of both humans and "dumb bots," involving simple artificial intelligence (AI) agents interacting in small groups.  By taking account of people's structural embeddedness in social networks, and by understanding social influence, it is possible to intervene in social systems to enhance desirable population-level properties as diverse as health, wealth, cooperation, coordination, and learning.

Published on Jan 30, 2018

Human beings choose their friends, and often their neighbors, and co-workers, and we inherit our relatives; and each of the people to whom we are connected also does the same, such that, in the end, we humans assemble ourselves into face-to-face social networks with particular structures. Why do we do this? And how might an understanding of human social network structure and function be used to intervene in the world to make it better? Here, I review recent research from our lab describing several classes of interventions involving both offline and online networks that can help make the world better, including: (1) interventions that rewire the connections between people, and (2) interventions that manipulate social contagion, facilitating the flow of desirable properties within groups. I will illustrate what can be done using a variety of experiments in settings as diverse as fostering cooperation in networked groups online, to fostering health behavior change in developing world villages, to facilitating the diffusion of innovation or coordination in groups. I will also focus on our recent experiments with “heterogenous systems” involving both humans and “dumb AI" bots, interacting in small groups. By taking account of people's structural embeddedness in social networks, and by understanding social influence, it is possible to intervene in social systems to enhance desirable population-level properties as diverse as health, wealth, cooperation, coordination, and learning.

MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society presents the November IDSS Distinguished Seminar speaker, Nicholas Christakis. Professor Christakis discusses social network experiments on November 7, 2017.

What Do We Learn from Our Networks?

Full story: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-do-we-learn-from-networks In his lab at Yale, Nicholas A. Christakis investigates the biological origins of our social networks, the web of relationships that we form with family, friends, co-workers, and others. He talked to Yale Insights about how ideas and behaviors spread through networks, and how leaders can shape networks to make their organizations happier and more effective. Yale School of Management

Opening Remarks by Head of College Nicholas Christakis at the 75th Commencement Exercises of Silliman College at Yale University, May 23, 2016

Professor Nicholas Christakis of Yale University spoke to an audience at Cass about his research into social networks as part of the Dean's Lecture series. Specifically he tracked how a wide variety of traits – from happiness to obesity – can spread from person to person.

By understanding the connections within social networks we can understand how to use network interventions to effect positive change, argued Harvard social scientist Nicholas Christakis at Wired 2012.He explained to the audience that social networks are "deeply embedded in our evolutionary heritage"."We've been making social networks for hundreds of thousands of years and they have always looked the same," he said.When visualised in charts, they tend to be dots representing people and lines representing their connections. They are always varied and interconnected, with some people having more connections than others. "They never look like a regular lattice [where everyone has the same number of friends]. We don't live our lives like that. Nor has any naturally-occurring social network been found to look like this.

Floating University

Networks Understanding Networks @ MIT Media Lab, October 2011. Economies are networks of businesses, just as businesses are networks of people, and people are networks of cells. Networks are everywhere, and the MIT Media Lab's fall member event celebrated their ubiquity by exploring how these structured interactions affect our economy, businesses, health, and even the way we understand ourselves.

Opening Days lecture by Prof. Nicholas Christakis highlights power of social networks and argues  that human social networks have the power to spread obesity — or happiness — like contagion.

Every choice you make, every behavior you exhibit, and even every desire you have finds its roots in the social universe. Nicholas Christakis explains why individual actions are inextricably linked to sociological pressures; whether you're absorbing altruism performed by someone you'll never meet or deciding to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, collective phenomena affect every aspect of your life. 

Nicholas Christakis discusses the how a wide variety of traits -- from happiness to obesity -- can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you don't even know.

After mapping humans' intricate social networks, Nicholas Christakis and colleague James Fowler began investigating how this information could better our lives. Now, he reveals his hot-off-the-press findings: These networks can be used to detect epidemics earlier than ever, from the spread of innovative ideas to risky behaviors to viruses (like H1N1). 

We're all embedded in vast social networks of friends, family, co-workers and more. Nicholas Christakis tracks how a wide variety of traits -- from happiness to obesity -- can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you don't even know.

A 76 minute clip in 8 parts, dated February 21, 2008, of Dr. Christakis discussing social contagion and individual health at Boston College.