Nicholas Christakis on the power of social networks

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Nicholas Christakis on the power of social networks

25 Feb 2010

Speakers: Nicholas Christakis

Nicholas Christakis discusses the power and influence of our social networks. He opens his lecture with anecdotal evidence of the ‘widower effect’ – when someone within your intimate social network dies, it increases your chances of dying. In other words, worrying about others adversely affects your own health, increasing your chance of dying. Christakis uses this established theory to ask whether or not obesity can spread, metaphorically and literally, through social networks. Using complex scientific models that track his research, Christakis shows that obesity does cluster in groups, and that one's risk of becoming obese increases if others around you are obese.

Christakis suggests three reasons to explain clusters of obesity, before exploring the effects of different types of relationships in the social network. He defines three types of friendship: ‘reciprocal friendships,’ the ‘ego-nominated friendship’ and the ‘alter-nominated friendship’ and how some relationships are more vulnerable to spreading characteristics than others. From research into social networking and obesity, Christakis turns to human emotions and emotional contagion. The influence of friends is not limited to real experience - it also overlaps with electronic social networks. He concludes by explaining the importance and necessity of social networks and interconnections and how the benefits of social networks out-weigh the costs.