Social Network Experiments Offline and Online

Departments: Biomedical Engineering
Time: Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Type: Seminar Series
Presenter: Nicholas A. Christakis, MD., Ph.D., M.P.H. Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science Co-Director, Yale Institute for Network Science
Room/Office: Bercton Seminar Room
Location:
Becton Seminar Room
15 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT
United States
See map: Google Maps

Department of Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series

When: Thursday, April 10th, 2014
Place: Becton Seminar Room
Time: 4PM

"Social Network Experiments Offline and Online"

Nicholas A. Christakis, MD., Ph.D., M.P.H.
Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science
Co-Director, Yale Institute for Network Science

Abstract: Great progress has been made in the last few years in understanding the structure and function of human social networks, and the mathematical, biological, psychological, and sociological rules undergirding them. But the question remains about what one might do with this knowledge to intervene in social systems to make them better. I will review two classes of interventions, involving both offline and online networks: those that manipulate connection, and those that manipulate contagion. 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 vitamin adoption in highland villages in Honduras. By taking account of people's structural embeddedness in social networks, it is possible to intervene in social systems to enhance population-level behavior change, facilitate the flow of information, and change outcomes as diverse as emotions and epidemics