Press

What principally matters is whether social scientists are doing their job of helping humans to understand the world and improve life. Originally published on October 9, 2014.

Your friends and family influence your drinking, sleep, weight, and happiness—more than you think. Originally published September/October 2014.

A new study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests friends may be more than just people you lean on when you're not strong; they might actually help you carry on -- genetically speaking. We are as genetically similar to our friends as we are our with our fourth cousins. Originally published on July 15, 2014.

Friends often look alike. The tendency of people to forge friendships with people of a similar appearance has been noted since the time of Plato. But now there is research suggesting that, to a striking degree, we tend to pick friends who are genetically similar to us in ways that go beyond superficial features. Originally published on July 14, 2014.

People often talk about how their friends feel like family. Well, there's some new research out that suggests there's more to that than just a feeling. People appear to be more like their friends genetically than they are to strangers, the research found. Originally published on July 14, 2014.

Les gens ont tendance à choisir des amis qui leur sont génétiquement proches, à tel point que les personnes d'un même cercle social peuvent être aussi proches que des cousins au quatrième degré. Originally published on July 14, 2014.

In the digital swirl of Facebook status updates, emotions expressed online can be contagious, according to a new study encompassing more than 100 million people in the U.S. and a billion messages they posted. Moreover, upbeat messages were far more likely than negative ones to affect the mood of others online, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, Yale University and Facebook Inc. report. Originally published on March 12, 2014.

Der Soziologe Nicholas Christakis über ansteckende Vorlieben und die unterschätzte Bedeutung des Miteinanders. Originally published on January 26, 2012.

The Hadza, who live primitively in Tanzania, have social networks similar to modern ones. People prefer the company of those with attitudes similar to their own, a study finds. Originally published on January 25, 2012.

HOW people collaborate, in the face of numerous temptations to cheat, is an important field of psychological and economic research. A lot of this research focuses on the “tit-for-tat” theory of co-operation: that humans are disposed, when dealing with another person, to behave in a generous manner until that other person shows himself not to be generous. At this point co-operation is withdrawn. Fool me once, in other words, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Originally published on November 19, 2011.