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Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
@NAChristakis
Oct 2, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
This video, from old work of ours, shows how a respiratory virus spreads across social ties, inexorably, and it illustrates the sort of time course we can expect to occur in a social group like the (mask-less) staff around POTUS. We will hear soon of more cases. 1/
One of the reasons politicians and celebrities contract diseases early in an epidemic, as discussed in #APOLLOSARROW, is precisely that they are often central in social networks, and have many interactions. It's not just that we hear about such people because of their fame. 2/
During past pandemics, including the 1890 and 1918 pandemics, many world leaders contracted infections, as discussed in #APOLLOSARROW (amazon.com/Apollos-Arrow-…). We are seeing this again in 2020, with Johnson, Bolsonaro, and Trump. 3/
It would be interesting to see whether leaders who dismiss the risks of the COVID19 (like Trump, Johnson, and Bolsonaro) are more likely to contract it than leaders who do not (like Macron, Merkel, Arden, etc.) 4/
I have no doubt that, before long, network diagrams will be drawn of Trump's entourage, showing positivity for COVID19, and exploring the network spread. I suspect network properties will be shown to play a role. Probably @ValdisKrebs will do it. ;-) 5/
Biden is negative for COVID so far. 6/

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More from @NAChristakis

Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
Dec 6
In work out in December 2024 in @SciReports, Matt Jones and I conduct experiments to study the role of leadership within factions of larger groups struggling to reach consensus on a contentious topic. 1/ Image
For groups to reach consensus, which is a common and crucial social task, constituent individuals must share information across network ties and make concessions to others people, trading off personal versus collective interests. 2/
Leadership is also important to group performance.

Good leaders delegate tasks so the group functions as a cohesive unit; act as information clearinghouses; wield authority to bring unruly members in line; and speed up decisions by executive action. 3/
Read 16 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
Nov 21
The bacteria in your gut depend on where you are in the social network.

And the microbes within us treat our social networks as the extended environment in which they thrive. They can spread from person to person.

New #HNL work out today in @Nature. 1/
"Gut microbiome strain-sharing within isolated village social networks" with @chocophlan, @JacksonPullman1, @mqdicer, @ShivkumarVs, @DrewPrinster, @adarshsingh110, RM Juárez, @eairoldi, @ilanabrito123 #HNL 2/ nature.com/articles/s4158…Image
This work took >6 years of my life (with maddening delays due to COVID19), but it started as a kernel of an idea left over from our 2007 paper on the spread of obesity ( ) in which we noted that social contagion and biological contagion could both occur 3/nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.105…Image
Image
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Read 21 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
Jul 2
In new work from #HNL in @NatureComms, we explore the ability of simple AI to affect the capacity of creativity of human groups. This work continues a stream of work we inaugurated in 2017, studying “hybrid systems” of humans and machines. 1/ nature.com/articles/s4146…
The primary obstacle to finding good ideas is normally not that innovations are hard to evaluate, but rather that coming up with an original idea that pushes the boundary of available ideas is hard. This is a challenge that groups can both mitigate and amplify. Distinctly, since AI can alter group behavior, AI might also affect creativity. 2/
Innovative ideas can enhance the immediate welfare of a population and even modify the course of human evolution. However, finding such valuable ideas often involves exploring a large pool of possibilities – which can be a challenging process for both individuals and groups. 3/
Read 17 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
Jul 1
Human beings have both friends and enemies, and they can track such connections. Why? It’s not hard to see why we evolved the capacity for friendship, but why do we have a capacity for animosity, and how might it shape our social networks, potentially for the better? 1/
In new work in @PNASNews, @Amir_Ghasemian and I explore “The Structure and Function of Antagonistic Ties in Village Social Networks.”

At the population level, the existence of antagonism has important implications for the overall structure and function of human groups. #HNL 2/

pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…Image
Just as friendship ties can impose costs (ranging from the demands our friends place on us to the risk of infection that social connections entail), antagonistic ties can offer benefits (ranging from enhancing our overall access to novel information or reducing our membership in overly siloed groups). We show how this plays out. 3/

pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…Image
Read 15 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
May 3
Social contagion is a powerful force.

People copy the thoughts, feelings, & actions of those to whom they are connected. Understanding social network structure & function makes it possible to use social contagion to intervene in the world to improve health, wealth, & learning.Image
In a large randomized controlled field trial in 24,702 people in 176 isolated villages in Honduras, published in @ScienceMagazine on May 3, 2024, we showed how social contagion can be used to improve human welfare. #HNL @eairoldi science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
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To exploit social contagion, tools are needed to eficiently identify individuals who are better able to initiate cascades. To be maximally useful, such tools should be deployable without having to actually map face-to-face social network interactions. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Read 18 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
Apr 30
I have some thoughts on this fine statement by @Yale President Peter Salovey regarding desire by some students to impose "ideological litmus test" for access to a shared Yale space.

Salovey said: “Those protestors asked individuals who wished to pass through or enter their area, which is a shared campus space, to agree with their political viewpoints. This action is unacceptable and antithetical to the very purpose of a university.”

It’s is quite right to reject this impulse, but where might students have got this sort of idea?

The background for this statement is pro-Palestinian protests and certain recent actions by some protestors.

For the removal of doubt, I wholly support the right to protest and am sympathetic both to Israel and the civilians suffering horribly in Gaza. I have no problem with the tents or public art.

But protest that stops others from using the campus crosses line into civil disobedience and is distinct from free expression.

and
The problem with the otherwise commendable statement by President Salovey is that the students’ impulse to have a litmus test is part of a broader pattern of such actions at Yale (violating its liberal tenets). We have procedures and bureaucracies that do just this -- which may have given the students this very idea!
Read 7 tweets

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