Best Selling Books by Nicholas A. Christakis

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 emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, CONNECTED overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm-that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. It will change the way we think about every aspect of our lives.

"A dazzlingly erudite synthesis of history, philosophy, anthropology, genetics, sociology, economics, epidemiology, statistics, and more" (Frank Bruni, The New York Times), Blueprint shows why evolution has placed us on a humane path -- and how we are united by our common humanity. For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all of our inventions -- our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations -- we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society. In Blueprint, Nicholas A. Christakis introduces the compelling idea that our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviors, but also the ways in which we make societies, ones that are surprisingly similar worldwide. With many vivid examples -- including diverse historical and contemporary cultures, communities formed in the wake of shipwrecks, commune dwellers seeking utopia, online groups thrown together by design or involving artificially intelligent bots, and even the tender and complex social arrangements of elephants and dolphins that so resemble our own -- Christakis shows that, despite a human history replete with violence, we cannot escape our social blueprint for goodness. In a world of increasing political and economic polarization, it''s tempting to ignore the positive role of our evolutionary past. But by exploring the ancient roots of goodness in civilization, Blueprint shows that our genes have shaped societies for our welfare and that, in a feedback loop stretching back many thousands of years, societies are still shaping our genes today.

A piercing and scientifically grounded look at the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic and how it will change the way we live—"excellent and timely." (The New Yorker) Apollo''s Arrow offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on momentous (yet dimly remembered) historical epidemics, contemporary analyses, and cutting-edge research from a range of scientific disciplines, bestselling author, physician, sociologist, and public health expert Nicholas A. Christakis explores what it means to live in a time of plague—an experience that is paradoxically uncommon to the vast majority of humans who are alive, yet deeply fundamental to our species. Unleashing new divisions in our society as well as opportunities for cooperation, this 21st-century pandemic has upended our lives in ways that will test, but not vanquish, our already frayed collective culture. Featuring new, provocative arguments and vivid examples ranging across medicine, history, sociology, epidemiology, data science, and genetics, Apollo''s Arrow envisions what happens when the great force of a deadly germ meets the enduring reality of our evolved social nature.

This groundbreaking book explains prognosis from the perspective of doctors, examining why physicians are reluctant to predict the future, how doctors use prognosis, the symbolism it contains, and the emotional difficulties it involves. Drawing on his experiences as a doctor and sociologist, Nicholas Christakis interviewed scores of physicians and searched dozens of medical textbooks and medical school curricula for discussions of prognosis in an attempt to get to the core of this nebulous medical issue that, despite its importance, is only partially understood and rarely discussed. "Highly recommended for everyone from patients wrestling with their personal prognosis to any medical practitioner touched by this bioethical dilemma."—Library Journal, starred review "[T]he first full general discussion of prognosis ever written. . . . [A] manifesto for a form of prognosis that''s equal parts prediction-an assessment of likely outcomes based on statistical averages-and prophecy, an intuition of what lies ahead."—Jeff Sharlet, Chicago Reader "[S]ophisticated, extraordinarily well supported, and compelling. . . . [Christakis] argues forcefully that the profession must take responsibility for the current widespread avoidance of prognosis and change the present culture. This prophet is one whose advice we would do well to heed."—James Tulsky, M.D., New England Journal of Medicine

En los últimos años websites como Facebook, Twitter o MySpace han disparado tanto la información sobre las redes sociales como el deseo de entenderlas. Éstas determinan cómo nos encontramos, con quién nos casamos, si nos ponemos o no enfermos, cuánto dinero ganamos y si acudimos o no a las urnas. Nuestros amigos, o incluso los amigos de los amigos de éstos, pueden hacernos engordar; pero también la felicidad es contagiosa. Sin embargo, a pesar de su importancia, pocos tienen una idea clara de cómo se forman y actúan en realidad estas estructuras. Christakis y Fowler, dos de los teóricos de las redes sociales más reconocidos del mundo, presentan una novedosa concepción de estas redes humanas basada en descubrimientos recientes en campos tan dispares como la genética, las matemáticas, la psicología o la sociología. Conectados aclara el origen y funcionamiento de éstas, revela sus efectos concretos en nuestra vida cotidiana y demuestra que en nuestro mundo rige la que los autores denominan Regla de los Tres Grados de Influencia: personas que se encuentran a tres grados de nosotros nos influyen más de lo que podríamos siquiera imaginar. Según Christakis y Fowler, el amigo del amigo de un amigo ejerce una influencia mayor en nuestro estado de ánimo que cinco mil dólares en el bolsillo.

Christakis plasează evenimentele recente într-un context istoric și folosește exemple medicale, date științifice și comparații menite să explice cum vom reuși să trecem împreună peste un obstacol comunitar. O viziune nuanțată și clară despre criza COVID-19 și posibilele sale rezultate. – The Washington Post Incontestabil, fermecător, minunat. Un tur de forță. – Paul Farmer Christakis pune COVID-19 în context și se ocupă de dilemele din prezent folosindu-se de istorie, epidemiologie și sociologie. – The Economist Ce se întâmplă atunci când un virus infectează o lume întreagă, care sunt urmările unei pandemii și cum ar trebui să reacționăm când suntem implicați într-o situație nouă și destabilizatoare? Acestea sunt doar câteva întrebări la care răspunde Săgeata lui Apollo, scrisă din nevoia de obiectivitate și apărută într‑un moment în care COVID-19 generează mai degrabă frică și reticență. NICHOLAS A. CHRISTAKIS, expert în sociologie, sănătate publică și medicină, completează imaginea pe care o avem despre pandemia de coronavirus, pornind de la societatea americană a anului 2020 și oferind o viziune globală despre criza sanitară care ne-a luat pe nepregătite.

«Rara vez se nos ha concedido el privilegio de contar con un estudio de una enfermedad pandémica caracterizado por semejante alcance, ingenio y erudición. Más raro aún es que aparezca mientras el resto de nosotros tratamos de encontrarle sentido a una crisis que evoluciona rápidamente, una que está moldeada por las mismas fuerzas sociales que ha estudiado Nicholas Christakis durante décadas. La flecha de Apolo es más que un primer proyecto de la historia. Continuará presente como un diario de los años de la pandemia. Una obra magistral». Paul Farmer, profesor de la Facultad de Medicina de Harvard La flecha de Apolo ofrece un relato fascinante del impacto que ha tenido la propagación de la pandemia de coronavirus y de cómo se producirá la recuperación en los próximos años. Basándose en grandes epidemias históricas, análisis contemporáneos e investigaciones de vanguardia de una variedad de disciplinas científicas, Nicholas A. Christakis —médico, sociólogo y experto en salud pública—, examina lo que significa vivir en época de pandemia, una experiencia paradójicamente poco común para la gran mayoría de los seres humanos vivos, pero que es trascendental para nuestra especie. Tras suscitar nuevas divisiones en nuestra sociedad, así como oportunidades para la cooperación, esta pandemia del siglo xxi ha cambiado nuestras vidas de maneras que pondrán a prueba nuestra ya crispada cultura colectiva sin lograr doblegarla. Con argumentos nuevos y sugestivos y ejemplos elocuentes que abarcan la medicina, la historia, la sociología, la epidemiología, la ciencia de los datos y la genética, La flecha de Apolo visualiza lo que sucede cuando la enorme fuerza de un germen mortal choca con la realidad de nuestra naturaleza social.

Într-o societate dominată de divergențe și idei greu de reconciliat, Nicholas A. Christakis își setează o miză aproape imposibilă: să spună povestea evoluției omului sub forma unei incursiuni optimiste în știință și istorie. Abordând subiecte variate, de la viața triburilor primitive și a comunităților religioase până la tehnologia de ultimă generație și sentimentul de alienare, cartea lui este un tur de forță prin universul experiențelor umane. O privire optimistă și plină de prospețime asupra speciei umane. – Kirkus Reviews Christakis reunește filozofia, antropologia, sociologia și genetica pentru a ne da o veste extraordinară: evoluția ne-a pregătit să fim mai buni. Într-un moment în care istoria întunecată a primelor decenii ale secolului trecut pare să se repete, e o ușurare să ne amintim de ce partea mai bună a naturii omenești triumfă în cele din urmă. – Anne Applebaum O pledoarie impresionantă pentru capacitatea noastră de a fi prieteni. – The New York Times Admirabila povestire a lui Christakis ne arată că bunătatea și iubirea nu sunt simple resurse la care apelăm ca să ne integrăm în comunitate sau ca să ajungem la un ideal transcendent, ci reprezintă modalitatea prin care genele ne-au programat să înfruntăm dificultățile. Lumea noastră este reflexia acestor calități profunde care, în ciuda vicisitudinilor trecutului, rămân constante. Schița originilor ne amintește într-un mod plin de entuziasm că natura umană nu este dominată de diferențele care ne despart, ci de asemănările care formează o societate bazată pe cooperare și afecțiune reciprocă.

We recently showed that obesity can spread socially from person to person in adults (Christakis and Fowler 2007). A natural question to ask is whether or not these results generalize to a population of adolescents. Three separate teams of researchers have analyzed the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and shown evidence of person-to-peron spread of obesity, but they use different methods and disagree on the interpretation of their results. Here, we conduct our own analysis of the Add Health data, provide additional evidence from the Framingham Heart Study on the social spread of obesity, and use Monte Carlo simulations to test the econometric methods we use to model peer effects. The results show that the existence of peer effects in body mass is robust to several specifications in both adults and in adolescents.

We address leadership emergence and the possibility that there is a partially innate predisposition to occupy a leadership role. Employing twin design methods on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate the heritability of leadership role occupancy at 24%. Twin studies do not point to specific genes or neurological processes that might be involved. We therefore also conduct association analysis on the available genetic markers. The results show that leadership role occupancy is associated with rs4950, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) residing on a neuronal acetylcholine receptor gene (CHRNB3). We replicate this family-based genetic association result on an independent sample in the Framingham Heart Study. This is the first study to identify a specific genotype associated with the tendency to occupy a leadership position. The results suggest that what determines whether an individual occupies a leadership position is the complex product of genetic and environmental influences; with a particular role for rs4950.

Objectives To evaluate whether happiness can spread from person to person and whether niches of happiness form within social networks. Design Longitudinal social network analysis. Setting Framingham Heart Study social network. Participants 4739 individuals followed from 1983 to 2003. Main outcome measures Happiness measured with validated four item scale; broad array of attributes of social networks and diverse social ties. Results Clusters of happy and unhappy people are visible in the network, and the relationship between people''s happiness extends up to three degrees of separation (for example, to the friends of one''s friends'' friends). People who are surrounded by many happy people and those who are central in the network are more likely to become happy in the future. Longitudinal statistical models suggest that clusters of happiness result from the spread of happiness and not just a tendency for people to associate with similar individuals. A friend who lives within a mile (about 1.6 km) and who becomes happy increases the probability that a person is happy by 25% (95% confidence interval 1% to 57%). Similar effects are seen in coresident spouses (8%, 0.2% to 16%), siblings who live within a mile (14%, 1% to 28%), and next door neighbors (34%, 7% to 70%). Effects are not seen between coworkers. The effect decays with time and with geographical separation. Conclusions People''s happiness depends on the happiness of others with whom they are connected. This provides further justification for seeing happiness, like health, as a collective phenomenon.

We recommend the immediate universal adoption of cloth facemasks, including homemade, and accompanying policies to increase the supply of medical masks for health workers. Universal adoption will likely slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus by reducing transmission from asymptomatic individuals. We provide strongly suggestive evidence from cross-country data that facemask use slows the growth rate of cases and deaths. This complements extant scientific data on mask usage. Our analysis suggests each cloth facemask generates thousands of dollars in value from reduced mortality risk. Each medical mask, when used by a healthcare worker, may generate millions of dollars in value, and policies to encourage greater production prioritized for health workers are urgently needed.

Background: The prevalence of obesity has increased substantially over the past 30 years. We quantitatively explored the nature and extent of person-to-person spread of obesity as a possible contributing factor explaining this increase. Methods: We developed a densely interconnected social network of 12,067 people assessed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003 as part of the Framingham Heart Study. Measured body mass index was available for all subjects. We used longitudinal statistical models to examine whether weight gain in one person was associated with weight gain in friends, siblings, spouses, and neighbors. Results: Discernible clusters of obese persons were present in the network at all time points, and the clusters extended three people deep. These clusters were not solely due to selective formation of social ties among obese persons. A friend becoming obese in a given time interval increased a person''s chances of becoming obese by 57% (95% CI: 6%-123%). Among pairs of adult siblings, one becoming obese increased the chance that the other became obese by 40% (21%-60%). Among spouses, one becoming obese increased the likelihood that the other became obese by 37% (7%-73%). Immediate neighbors did not exhibit these effects. In general, same-gender persons showed relatively greater influence on each other. The spread of smoking cessation did not account for the inter-personal spread of obesity. Conclusions: Network phenomena appear relevant to the bio-behavioral trait of obesity. Obesity appears to spread across social ties, a finding with implications for clinical and public health interventions.

This article reviews existing research at the intersection of genetics and economics, presents some new findings that illustrate the state of genoeconomics research, and surveys the prospects of this emerging field. Twin studies suggest that economic outcomes and preferences, once corrected for measurement error, appear to be about as heritable as many medical conditions and personality traits. Consistent with this pattern, we present new evidence on the heritability of permanent income and wealth. Turning to genetic association studies, we survey the main ways that the direct measurement of genetic variation across individuals is likely to contribute to economics, and we outline the challenges that have slowed progress in making these contributions. The most urgent problem facing researchers in this field is that most existing efforts to find associations between genetic variation and economic behavior are based on samples that are too small to ensure adequate statistical power. This has led to many false positives in the literature. We suggest a number of possible strategies to improve and remedy this problem: (a) pooling data sets, (b) using statistical techniques that exploit the greater information content of many genes jointly, and (c) focusing on economically relevant traits that are most proximate to known biological mechanisms.

Poor sanitation, including the lack of clean functioning toilets, is a major factor contributing to morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases in the developing world. We examine correlates of latrine ownership in rural India with a focus on social network predictors. Participants from 75 villages provided the names of their social contacts as well as their own relevant demographic and household characteristics. Using these measures, we test whether the latrine ownership of an individual''s social contacts is a significant predictor of individual latrine ownership. We also investigate whether network centrality significantly predicts latrine ownership, and if so, does it moderate the relationship between the latrine ownership of the individual and that of her social contacts. Our results show that, controlling for the standard predictors of latrine ownership such as caste, education, and income, individuals are more likely to own latrines if their social contacts own latrines. Interaction models suggest that this relationship is stronger among those of the same caste, the same education, and those with stronger social ties. We also find that more central individuals are more likely to own latrines, but the correlation in latrine ownership between social contacts is strongest among individuals on the periphery of the network. Although more data is needed to determine how much the clustering of latrine ownership may be caused by social influence, the results here suggest that interventions designed to promote latrine ownership should consider focusing on those at the periphery of the network. The reason is that they are 1) less likely to own latrines and 2) more likely to exhibit the same behavior as their social contacts, possibly as a result of the spread of latrine adoption from one person to another.

Past research suggests that spouses influence one another to vote, but relies almost exclusively on correlation in turnout. It is therefore difficult to establish whether spouses mobilize each other or tend to marry similar others. Here, we test the dependency hypothesis by examining voting behavior before and after the death of a spouse. We link nearly 6 million California voter records to Social Security death records, and use both coarsened exact matching and multiple cohort comparison to estimate the effects of spousal loss. The results show that after turnout rates stabilize, widowed individuals vote nine percentage points less than they would had their spouse still been living, and that this change may persist indefinitely. Variations in this "widowhood effect" on voting support a social isolation explanation for the drop in turnout.