414. The Science of Social Networks with Nicholas Christakis

unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

Do our genes have an impact on how many friends we’ll have in life and the kinds of people we gravitate towards whether our friends are connected to each other? How can the study of social networks help us better prepare for the next pandemic?

Nicholas Christakis is a professor of natural and social sciences and directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University. His research focuses on social networks and biosocial science, all of which are central points in his books like, Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live and Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.

He and Greg discuss how genes can influence our social networks, the dynamics of social contagion, and why the arc of human evolution bends towards goodness.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Why even minds as brilliant as Isaac Newton's succumb to financial manias

01:01:41 Our ability to function in groups depends, in part, on our ability to copy the mood of others around us. And all of us have had this experience. (01:02:20) It's to build group solidarity. And the other is it's efficient in terms of learning. In other words, rather than having to learn something yourself, you just copy what others are doing. And that's extremely efficient. So rather than having to do your own research and figure out what stock really has good fundamentals, you're like, well, I'll just buy what everyone else is buying that sometimes leads to really over-the-top, frothy bubbles that are quite dangerous for all involved.

The spread of germs is the price we pay for the spread of ideas

23:07 One of the reasons we affiliate with each other and live in groups is to avail ourselves of this process of social learning, but in so doing, we expose ourselves to other risks—for example, the risks of infection, the risks of violence, and so on. So natural selection over time has balanced these costs and benefits and yielded, I argue, a structure of networks that obeys the principle that the benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs. Otherwise, we would live separate from each other. We wouldn't form networks.

Network science in a 21st-century approach

06:45 Network science offers a 21st-century approach because it connects the collective and individual layers. It explains how individuals become members of collectivities, become members of groups by identifying the pattern of connections between people. It's kind of a structural approach.

Do modern technologies influence human social interactions?

17:17 There's no question that new technologies are affecting our social interactions in a number of ways. But the fundamental reality of our desire for social connection and our susceptibility to technology's social influence is not changing over a hundred-year time span. This has been shaped by ancient and powerful evolutionary forces.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

• Lumpers and splitters
• Adam Smith
• Émile Durkheim
• Karl Marx
• Francis Galton
• Diffusion of Innovations
• Thomas Valente
• Richard Dawkins
• Steven Pinker
• Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at Yale University

His Work:

• Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live
• Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
• Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives -- How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do