Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

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Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

by Nicholas A. Christakis, James H. Fowler

3.65 · rating details · 495 ratings · 114 reviews

Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Drs. Christakis and Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide.
In CONNECTED, the authors explain why ...more

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published September 28th 2009 by Little, Brown and Company (first published 2009)

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May 25, 2010

Jason rated it

The Superorganism. We've animated! We've vivified. Social Media, social networking, geolocation, Goodreads, bookmarking, news aggregators, RSS feeds, it goes on and on. We've layered ourselves in so many overlapping, four-dimensional, self-annealing, anfractuous networks that we exist as single honeycombs in a living hive of millions. There are invisible lines that leave your body and connect to other people in ways you can't even represent on paper, exploding outward in fractal, logarithmic...moreThe Superorganism. We've animated! We've vivified. Social Media, social networking, geolocation, Goodreads, bookmarking, news aggregators, RSS feeds, it goes on and on. We've layered ourselves in so many overlapping, four-dimensional, self-annealing, anfractuous networks that we exist as single honeycombs in a living hive of millions. There are invisible lines that leave your body and connect to other people in ways you can't even represent on paper, exploding outward in fractal, logarithmic steps to the rest of the world. These connections can be both perennial or ephemeral, durable or solvent, obvious or perplexing, and usually several types at once. But, they are as essential--though seemingly unrelated--to the same organism as kidneys and a hypothalamus.

We know what it means to have Six Degrees of Separation between us, ala Kevin Bacon. Connected now presents us the next maxim in the formula that defines the Superorganism. There are 'Three Degrees of Influence,' no more, and generally no less. In other words, you are influenced most by your first degree of friends; next by the second degree of friend's friends; and finally by a third degree of friend's friend's friends. You don't even know those people, and yet, using repeatable mathematical rigor, the experiments show that we are ultimately affected by Three Degrees of Influence. Sure, it's less influence at each degree, but the unknown people in your myriad networks yield a certain, empirical influence over your actions. I shit you not.

For my new friends on Goodreads, that means my buddy from high school has a new work co-worker that now, from Three Degrees of Separation, can influence your thoughts, decisions, and attitudes. It seems absolutely ridiculous, but the PhD authors have employed CRAY 1 supercomputers to cull trillions of nodes and billions of interactions, and have arrived at numbers that are amazingly replicable--and replicable over networks of different kind, shape and form.

In a network of thousands of people there are bizarre clumpings of obesity, depression, athleticism, obsessive-compulsion, white collar crime, hyperlipidemia, and political persuasion. Some of these seem intuitive, but how the heck can my high school buddy's new co-worker affect your triglycerides? Is it possible that your ex-lover's new partner should affect my diet! "No," you say. WRONG. And here's the book to prove it.

Connected presents more material than just a proof of Three Degrees of Influence. The book explains how and, more importantly, why humans live in these networks. This is not an anthropological study, but there are some interesting tidbits about where you should be in your network (central or peripheral) when there's an unexpected outbreak of genital warts, depression, or criminal activity. You also learn to what extent social media has complicated, extended, and entangled your lives with others. As sociologists begin to plumb the data of Web 3.0, a brave new world is coming into focus, and it's a world of helpful, intriguing, unbelievable connectedness.

Twopointsomething rounded up to 3 stars. The book is well-paced and revealing enough. Unfortunately the publisher restrained these PhDs, making the book more palatable to America's sixth grade reading level. I would have preferred a more academic and data-based presentation. Too bad they gloss over the real mechanics of networks and how they morph around like fresh water pseudopods.(less)

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Jan 15, 2011

Trevor rated it

Shelves: behavioural-economics, education, social-theory, psychology

There are a number of things I’ve been thinking about lately and quite a few of those things are discussed here in this book. So, in a sense I should have found this much more interesting than I did. Overall, I was a little disappointed even though I think this book has an important message and has interesting things to say about a number of incredibly important issues.

If I had written this book…

It is hard to say just what the perfect society might be for humans, but wh...more

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Jun 12, 2011

Bojan Tunguz rated it

· review of another edition

The raise of the internet has precipitated the increase of public's interest in networks and many books have come out in recent years that explore this new fascination. Most of these books, however, focus on some very trite and visible aspect of the web networks, and don't delve deeper into the more subtle and nonobvious properties of networks. In the light of that the strength of "Connected" is that it heavily relies on well established scientific research and presents it in an access...moreThe raise of the internet has precipitated the increase of public's interest in networks and many books have come out in recent years that explore this new fascination. Most of these books, however, focus on some very trite and visible aspect of the web networks, and don't delve deeper into the more subtle and nonobvious properties of networks. In the light of that the strength of "Connected" is that it heavily relies on well established scientific research and presents it in an accessible fashion that still does full justice to the topic. Both authors are themselves prominent researchers in the field, and this fact helps with the choice and presentation of topics. The particular focus on social networks is very timely in the light of recent explosion of online social networks. However, social networks have been around for a very long time. In fact, there have been some evolutionary theories that suggest that our rise as a species has been to a large extent spurred by the need to manage large social networks.

The book provides many interesting and nontrivial insights into what sorts of social networks are most beneficial in certain circumstances, and which ones on the other hand can have the most deleterious effects, such as in cases of spreading of diseases. One of the more pleasant aspects of this book has been the more positive attitude towards the role of religion in society that is not simplistic and provides us with some useful new insights and ways of looking at religion. For instance, from the purely social-networking point of view God can be viewed as a node in a network that is equally distant from all other nodes - individual believers in this case. This provides us with a useful new paradigm, and it would be interesting to see if other social researchers would employ it in their investigations and analyses of religion in the upcoming years.

If you are looking for a well-researched and accessible book on social networks, this is probably the best one that has been on the market thus far.(less)

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Nov 28, 2010

Richard Conlin rated it

This book summarizes the research about social connections that changes the way we can think about social change and other phenomena. The authors suggest that social networking is so important in human activity that they even propose (almost seriously...) remonikering us "homo dictyous" (network man). A fun example, dear to my heart, about door-to-door voter turnout operations. A study they cite indicates that contacting a person and urging them to vote leads to a 10% higher chance ...more

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Jul 21, 2010

Andrew rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Excellent book by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler that describe how social networks can explain many social phenomena from voting patterns to the spread of food allergies to the epidemic of diabetes and depression.

Though most books in the social sciences are interesting, but light on evidence, the authors give due diligence to describing experiments and providing relatively robust analyses to support their claims.

Here is a list of high yield facts/experiments/insight...moreExcellent book by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler that describe how social networks can explain many social phenomena from voting patterns to the spread of food allergies to the epidemic of diabetes and depression.

Though most books in the social sciences are interesting, but light on evidence, the authors give due diligence to describing experiments and providing relatively robust analyses to support their claims.

Here is a list of high yield facts/experiments/insights in the book (spoiler alert!):

- 3.3 million Americans are supposedly allergic to nuts and 6.9 million are to seafood. But serious allergic reactions lead to only 2,000 hospitalizations per year (out of 30 million total hospitalizations) and at most only 150 Americans die each year from food allergies (compared to 50 for bee stings, 100 from lightning strikes, 45,000 from motor vehicle accidents, 2,000 who drown, 13,000 who die from gun accidents. The authors argue that these reports of allergies have spread like wild-fire through social networks due to anxiety and hysteria fromseeing others having allergies.
- A person is 15% more likely to be happy if a directly connected person is happy. (10% more likely if someone two degrees separated is happy. 6% more likely if someone three degress separated is happy.)
Compare this to the 2% bump when one gets $10,000.
- When the subway in Vienna, Austria was finished in 1978, suicides soared. When psychiatrists and journalists worked together to temper the detail in the coverage of the suicides, suicides dropped from 40/yr to 6/yr.
- Typical immunization campaigns require a 80-100% vaccination rate. However, if adopting a strategy to only vaccinate the well-connected acquaintances of randomly selected individuals, equivalent protection can be seen with ~30% vaccination.
- Election markets predict outcomes better than polls.
- There were two cool psychology experiments/games that were described:
1) Ultimatum game - two players, $10, player 1 decides how much of the $10 to give player 2. If player 2 accepts, the prize is split as proposed. If player 2 refuses, neither gets any money. Traditional economics predicts that player 1 will take $9.99 and give player 2 $0.01. However, often times the split was an even $5-$5. The authors don't simply take this as proof, but support for the idea that humans are hardwired to be altruistic. The authors do note that often times player 2 refused low offers (even though this was against his/her economic interest) and thus the equilibrium pushed towards $5-$5.
2) Dictator game- In this version of the game, player 1's decision was automatically taken. Traditional economics dictates that player 1 would take all $10 since player 2 was powerless. However, the equilibrium was established around $8-$2. Altruism indeed!
- Stanley Milgrim's 3 famous experiments were described: 1) 6 degrees of separation, which was replicated worldwide via email by other scientists, 2) developing a group following after looking up at nothing in particular, 3) the infamous Nazi-electrocution experiment.
- When study subjects took on online avatar identities via online gaming, they demonstrated The Proteus Effect in which the more attractive avataars were more dominant in the ultimatum game (described above). Whereas short avataars proposed $52-$48 splits of $100, tall avataars were closer to $61-$39.

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Mar 24, 2010

getAbstract rated it

A report on the basic urge to connect

Individuals derive their identities from their social networks. By forging dynamic connections, people accomplish innumerable worthwhile activities, such as giving to charity and sharing knowledge. Unfortunately, social networks also can bring great harm to their members. Panics may reverberate across financial networks, quickly sending stock markets into death spirals and shutting down credit for businesses and consumers. Pathogens like the AIDS ...more

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Aug 19, 2009

Bob rated it

Written by an MD/PhD and an MD--practicing professors and social scientists--this book examines social networks from numerous points of view: historical, biological, political, technological.

The first two thirds of the book are essentially a summary of studies, focused mainly on showing who affects us (friends of friends, more than friends themselves!), what they effect (sex, wealth, health, and social mores), and the power of those networks to change or reinforce behavior. The last...moreWritten by an MD/PhD and an MD--practicing professors and social scientists--this book examines social networks from numerous points of view: historical, biological, political, technological.

The first two thirds of the book are essentially a summary of studies, focused mainly on showing who affects us (friends of friends, more than friends themselves!), what they effect (sex, wealth, health, and social mores), and the power of those networks to change or reinforce behavior. The last third picks up the pace, as the authors start to make their own conclusions.

The book aspires to Malcom Gladwellian levels of genius, using clever anecdotes and real-world applications of its data. Gladwell, however, uses anecdotes not merely as window-dressing but as metaphors. He has simmered down his chapters like my grandmother's marinara. His real-world data hits you at the end like a revelation: all the while he has been talking about a bigger picture (e.g. racism), and has laid it all out in a page-ripping narrative.

Alas, Gladwell this ain't. For 200 pages, the authors drag the reader through arcane terminology, formative studies (which, with the exception of those by Stanley Milgram, are stultifyingly boring), and other establishing material of main interest for academics, professional scientists, or compulsives like me who can't skip ahead, or even stop reading a book once begun. Note to the authors: we're not vetting this as a scientific paper!

By the last 100 pages of the book, the authors finally get interesting. In terms of television, online networks, and electoral politics, they discuss the _implications_ of the social networks they've described. We haven't evolved so much as a species, they say, but the classic categorizations of society (Adam Smith on one side, and Karl Marx on the other) need to be re-evaluated.

Further: because of the digital age, we have better access to data, and can understand and manipulate our social networks more effectively. Then the authors make two conclusions: one, humans are basically good (supported with data!); and two, we can use social networks to cultivate more of this goodness. Best of all, they even suggest how: by addressing the digital divide, by encouraging charity, by making health and welfare policy more effective.

It's a startling and constructive end to a book that might have done better to begin there. Saying that "we're connected!" is an anticlimactic argument. Saying what happens next, that would be revolutionary. These social scientists have done some prodigious homework but have barely begun to sketch the trajectory of their equations.

*

WHY I READ THIS BOOK: It was being promoted at the Book Expo this summer (it comes out next month on Little, Brown) and I was in the mood for some non-fiction. As it turns out, moreover, I have been wrestling with the question "are good works necessarily made by good people?" ... and if it's true that the right book chooses you at the right time, then this happened here. To say "c'mon people now, it's time to get together" is not a new conclusion (cf Jesus, Buddha, Dorothy Day, King Sunny Adé, the Youngbloods), but the authors have suggested some strategies I should consider in my work on various public programs. They say: "To reduce poverty, we should focus not merely on monetary transfers or even technical training; we should help the poor form new relationships with other members of society." Can a public festival help change the world? Stay tuned for the experience of reading Chris Hedges' EMPIRE OF ILLUSION (The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle)...

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Oct 24, 2009

Jj Kwashnak rated it

Most people hold their family and friends important to their lives - that's a given. And many have played the Six Degrees of Separation (Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) game. But how important those social networks has not been as well understood. Christakis and Fowler show us that it really is who we know and how we know them that is more important than we ever understood in our lives. Through our friends, and their friends and acquaintances, we amass a rather large collection of people who can hav...more

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Oct 25, 2009

Paulo O'Brien rated it

We now live with humongous online social networks, but human beings have always had them -- in fact, it is one of the very things that defines being "human." Or says this book, which is a must read for understanding the power that social networks have had from the beginnings of human history and how that works.

This book provides a magnificent explanation of how central our connections to others have always been, going back to the tribal. In addition, the authors posit that ...more

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May 24, 2010

Alexandra Graßler rated it

· review of another edition

Wer wissen möchte, wie uns unsere ganz persönlichen sozialen Netzwerke beeinflussen, kommt an diesem Buch nicht vorbei. Es ist faszinierend zu lesen, dass die Reichweite - die Wirkung auf uns hat - bis zu den Freunden der Freunde unserer Freunde reicht.

Um ein Beispiel zu nennen: hören Freunde der Freunde unserer Freunde zum Rauchen auf, steigt die Chance (wenn wir auch rauchen) signifikant, dass wir auch aufhören zu rauchen! Von diesen Beispielen und Zusammenhängen gibt es viele zu ...more

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Oct 03, 2009

Shinynickel marked it as to-read

Off this review:

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
By Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler (Little, Brown and Company)
The “dynamic duo” behind Connected has already made waves with the research that forms the basis for this sure-to-be blockbuster. Christakas made headlines with a study that showed obesity could spread from person to person like a contagious disease; Fowler had similar coverage showing how political bel...more

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Feb 12, 2011

Kat rated it

Shelves: non-fiction-science-and-sociology

As work assignments go, reading a pretty interesting book and summarising it for marketers is not a bad one. Connected argues that personal behaviour is deeply affected by the social networks that people are involved in and that people one barely knows can have a profound impact on actions that we think are autonomous. They believe that social networks explain how society works and argue that they must be tended in order to enhance positive effects and mitigate negative ones. The authors back th...more

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Mar 26, 2010

Andy Oram rated it

Most of the research in this book has already been widely reported in
the popular press--a sign of its value--but like the phenomena the
authors describe, the book is much greater than the sum of its parts.
The carefully build a view of life from many areas of social science
(while generally admitting that there are alternative ways to
interpret the phenomena) and end up with one of those "big ideas" that
publishers love. I'm quite willing to entertain thi...more

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Sep 28, 2009

Margie rated it

Recommends it for: people with very short attention spans

Recommended to Margie by: GoodReads giveaways

Shelves: nonfiction, first-reads, society

I've read a couple of reviews by professionals, and have been really surprised that everyone focuses on the content, and no one mentions how poorly organized the book is.

The data is very interesting and compelling. And the authors aren't bad writers. But I'm simply stunned that people who talk about using visualization software to map the topology of social networks can't come up with some workable, organized map of how to present their findings. They seem to rely on having intere...more

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Apr 04, 2010

Schmacko rated it

So I’m a bit of a geek for these books. I read this one three times, for both good and bad reasons, which I’ll explain later.

Humans are of course social animals. Almost all of us live in groups large and small; we have our work groups, our social groups, and our families. Connected explores how much of an effect these groups have on us. It looks at our closest family and friends, but it goes further, including friends of friends of friends, pinpointing how these larger meta-group...moreSo I’m a bit of a geek for these books. I read this one three times, for both good and bad reasons, which I’ll explain later.

Humans are of course social animals. Almost all of us live in groups large and small; we have our work groups, our social groups, and our families. Connected explores how much of an effect these groups have on us. It looks at our closest family and friends, but it goes further, including friends of friends of friends, pinpointing how these larger meta-groups and intra cultures affect us.

What Connected finds is a bit alarming. It seems that depression can be considered contagious; so can rage. Obesity and healthy living are constantly battling each other through our web of acquaintances. You’re most likely to marry a friend of a friend. Job searchers have a better luck if they know people connected in the seeker’s business field. People are usually only really emotionally close to four to eight people. We can only know about 150 people beyond just cursory knowledge, though language lets us converse with millions. In this case, our meta-group – our friends of friends – can be HUGE. Their effects ripple and wake through our meta-groups, constantly battling to influence our politics, our weights, our emotions, and even our incomes and educational levels.

So much of this is frustrating. People (like me) with nearly 900 Facebook friends can go thorough their list, trying to pare things down, and say, “Nope, I know him, and I know her, and I know…” In fact, we can recognize thousands of faces, including celebrities and historic figures. How many people can we know? How many can we utilize and operate with in our daily life, jobs, and families. Study after study says about 100 to 150.

What about the idea that we are not really in control of our own fates? Constant influence is bombarding our free will. Obesity is contagious. But so is healthy living. People we may not even know well are encouraging us to eat more, exercise, or try a new weight loss plan.

Your friend’s friends are changing your vote. (You are likely to hang around people who see things politically your way. In fact, socially, there is a MASSIVE gulf between the two major political thoughts in America, with almost nobody in the gap. The graphic on this is cool!) Politicians become more popular when they go on The Colbert Report; this phenomenon is called “the Colbert bump.”

Of course, when you think of it, you influence others, and in turn you allow them to influence you. Free will is a grey area, shaped by both conscious and subconscious thought. Choice is so elaborate, it’s impossible to ever claim autonomy over your decisions.

Connected explains a lot of this what happens and why it happens. They study a LOT of areas, showing the different aspects of social contagions and subtler influences. They detail this situation in minute points; it’s a somewhat thick read. Two things they found: one, if you’ve got the right looks and the right social skills, you’re going to be popular, and your influence is going to be greater. No kidding? The second obvious fact they state is that if you can find the most connected nodes and influence them, you influence a HUGE system. Really?

So, why did I read it three times? Well, I don’t read self-help books, but I do read books like these. I like to see what I can do with such knowledge. The book is crammed full of fascinating stuff, but this in-depth tome specifically argues that there may be almost nothing you can do as an individual, short of becoming prettier, wealthier, more connected, and more socially adept.

Also, you can think you’re influencing the group, but you’d be unaware as to whether it’s influencing you. You might start healthy living, hoping your friends catch on, but who knows if it does? Also, you don’t know what antagonistic forces you’re battling; your meta-group could be full of people dipping Oreos into cake frosting, meaning your weight loss plan is destined to fail! You can get people to vote, but you don’t know if others are doing the same. You can come up with a new way to bring about social change, but while you’re in the system, you will never know what you’re up against, or if you yourself have been influenced. Essentially, this thorough book is interesting, but it may not change anything.

That’s what I found after three reads. Reading at this stuff from a distance is interesting. However, trying to apply it to your own life is nearly impossible, fraught with too many unseen factors to be applicable. The facts of the book end up being just extraordinarily fascinating trivia.
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Aug 02, 2011

Anibal added it · review of another edition

This book is a mayor paradigmatic shift in the social sciences for two reasons. First one, it announces the beginning of a new era: the era of the "Homo dyctious". It´s true that human beings have always been connected with others but now we have the right tools to asses it properly.

Second reason, contrary to the two great traditions in the social sciences: methodological individualism Vs. methodologogical holism this book represents a third road which explains what the others miss:...more

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Sep 28, 2009

Kater Cheek rated it

I bought this on spec (meaning, I didn't get it from teh library first and then decide it was worth buying) and I'm not sure it was really worth the $25.99 price tag. On one hand, it has a lot of fascinating information about everything from social networks, Milgram's experiments, Dunbar's number, and human evolution. On the other hand, it got a little dry at times. If you're not passionate about Sociology, as I am, you might not be able to finish it. And if you are passionate about Sociology,...more

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Jun 07, 2011

Steve Heitkamp rated it

It was good, but took me longer to read than I would have liked and I finished without feeling any 'wow' in my life. Perhaps it is because I am too interested in social networks to be shocked by the connections and too aware of the influences to see anything special in pointing them out. Are there people out there who do not think analyzing individuals as members of a social network is important to understanding who they are, the risks they face, and the future opportunities they are likely to...more

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Jun 04, 2010

Richard marked it as to-read

Recommended to Richard by: NY Times Review

Shelves: cognition, non-fiction

Reviewed in the New York Times: You and Your Friend’s Friend’s Friends (October 1, 2009). this is the one that told us that we're more likely to gain weight if our friend's friend gains weight — or even if our friend's friend's friend does so, even if we've never met that person. And the correlation is often higher than weight gain between spouses. All due to social network and their intrinsic power upon the unconscious brain.

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Jan 15, 2011

Liam rated it

"If it were always beneficial to have a certain number of friends and a certain number of connections between our friends, then our social world would look like a boring, predictable lattice or the atoms locked in a salt crystal. We would all have the same kind of network." (235)

"If God were seen as a node on a network, large groups of people could be bound together not just by a common idea but also by a specific relationship to every other believer. People could perc...more

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Oct 20, 2009

Cimuchowski rated it

I bit dry but interesting book. The authors put forward convincing evidence that we are connect to nearly everyone on the globe thorough a chain of 6 people but that we can really only influence the first 3 people in that chain. That Also show that we are effected by the "friends of our friends of our friends".

They do little in the way of showing how we are to use that influence.

I did start to wonder, how many people did it take in the past to reach everyone in the...more

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Oct 30, 2010

Efi rated it

Intersting collection of research perspectives and observations from various areas (economics, medicine, psychiatry) that use social science modeling and theories.
This book is a Synthesis. It offers no new idea or perspective but adds to ones awareness on behavioral issues of groups, communities Etc.

It hasn't changed the way I operate but it reinforced spiritual beliefs on our connectedness and it reminded me what a joy it is to interact with people every day/ every moment. As if...more

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Aug 01, 2010

Nora rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Human beings are hardwired to copy each other behaviour and to form social connections. As a result, they influence each other's choices in many fields, including happiness, obesity, smoking, charity and voting. The influence lasts for 3 steps in the network: your friends, your friends of friends and your friends of friends of friends.
The authors are a doctor and a political scientist, so the chapters with medical and voting examples are the strongest in the book. The chapter on online s...more

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Aug 21, 2011

Frith rated it

It's hard to get exited about something when nothing important is explained (like, how do those computer models work?) and you get a bunch of statistics that are, well, meaningless. It doesn't help that the translator was clearly not having a good time when translating this. The number of errors was way too high for a (Dutch) translation of a book that pretends to have scientific importance.

Also, calling it a "superorganism" and then claiming that this approach is somehow di...more

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Jul 27, 2011

Jenny rated it

"Connected" is an amazing book about relations and how our social networks affect our lives. Your colleague's daughter's friend can have impact on your eating habits. Happiness is catching and your happiness spreads fast to others. If a sibling has a baby, it's very likely that the brother or sister will have one within two years.

Christakis and Fowler present many amazing facts in this well written book. They have shed new light on the three degrees of separation. I highly recommend t...more

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Mar 13, 2011

ηicolε rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I chose this book to write a psychology review in my class and feel it was worth the read. Not only did it speak of the science behind our social networks, but it also gave real modern examples. I learnt a lot in the book that surprised me.

Out of all the examples that Christakis spoke of, I enjoyed his look on reality shows (and how complete strangers need to coerce and combine their strengths to make it as far as they need).

Throughout chapter 4, he discusses social tren...more

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Jan 19, 2011

Melissa rated it

Shelves: audio-book, put-down

So far some interesting, but not new, thoughts on how ideas and behavior spread like disease. A good behavior like quitting smoking or a bad one like ...moreSo far some interesting, but not new, thoughts on how ideas and behavior spread like disease. A good behavior like quitting smoking or a bad one like obesity can both be idea/behaviors that spread. - You are likely to behavior similar to those around you and you are likely to surround yourself with those that are like you. True to some exten...more

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Dec 29, 2011

Shannon added it

Shelves: health, non-fiction, psychology, unfinished

So while the observation that there are six degrees of separation between any two people applies to how connected we are, the observation that there are three degrees of influence applies to how contagious we are. These properties, connection and contagion, are the structure and function of social networks. They are the anatomy and physiology of the human superorganism. p30

The development of emotions in humans, the display of emotions, and the ability to read the emotions of others hel...moreSo while the observation that there are six degrees of separation between any two people applies to how connected we are, the observation that there are three degrees of influence applies to how contagious we are. These properties, connection and contagion, are the structure and function of social networks. They are the anatomy and physiology of the human superorganism. p30

The development of emotions in humans, the display of emotions, and the ability to read the emotions of others helped coordinate group activity by three means: facilitating interpersonal bonds, synchronizing behavior, and communicating information. p36

The spread of information is obviously crucial to the process of invention. [...] There are thus two crucial sets of information in the patent data: the network of ideas and the network of collaborations. p155

Strong ties may bind individuals together into groups, but weak ties (casual acquaintances) bind groups together into the larger society and are crucial for the spread of information [...] p157

NETWORKING CREATIVITY
Uzzi found that teams made up of individuals who had never before worked together fared poorly, greatly increasing the chance of a flop. These networks were not well connected and contained mostly weak ties. As the other extreme, groups made up on individuals who had all worked together previously also tended to create musicals that were unsuccessful. Because these groups lacked creative input from the outside, they tended to rehash the same ideas that they used the first time they worked together. In between, however, Uzzi once again found a sweet spot that combines the diversity of new team members with the stability of previously formed relationships. The networks that best exhibited the small-world property were those that had the greatest success.

Production company networks with at mix of weak and strong times allowed easy communication but also fostered greater creativity because of the ideas of new members of the group and the synergies they created. Thus, the structure of the network appears to have a strong effect on both financial and critical success. p163

MAKING BETTER MUSICALS MIGHT NOT BE AT THE TOP OF YOUR LIST OF WORLD PROBLEMS, BUT KNOWING HOW TO SPUR CREATIVITY IN TEAMS HAS MUCH BROADER APPLICATIONS. P163 (Ha! I love this quote, considering how much I believe The Bakla Show production can affect.)

I didn't finish. But there was a section concerning voting and how Obama's Presidential Campaign was nearly flawless. They used fray contacts (weak ties)and they gave their intended audience a choice. What was Obama able to provide vs what McCain was able to provide as President? Never more than two choices.(less)

· see review

Jun 04, 2010

John rated it

Shelves: 2010, current_affairs, psychology, science

Okay, so this is another book on networks and how humans interact within social networks. There's nothing really new here that you won't find in any of the other popular science books on networks. Even though there was very little new within the book, I liked it. It sits solidly between the two main types of social network books out there. You have the Malcolm Gladwell simplification of the science for a mass audience with lots of interesting stories to illustrate principles that are never fully...more

· see review

Jan 03, 2012

Sherry rated it

This book came out when Facebook was (is?) peaking and many of the references to this book I had read made it sound like the book was an examination of social network sites like Facebook. However, this book is not an examination of social network websites, but social networks in the sociological sense. Considering my passion for sociology, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself reading a straight-up sociology book.

This book is more of a "pop" sociology treatment of the...more

· see review

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About Nicholas A. Christakis

Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, is a professor at Harvard University with joint appointments in the Departments of Health Care Policy, Sociology, and Medicine, and in 2009 was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

Christakis and Fowler's research has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, Today, and The Colbert Report, and on the fro...more

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Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care

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