The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers
Dec. 7th, 2009 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauerz50. Nicholas Christakis
for explaining why it's our friends who define us.
medical sociologist | Harvard university | Cambridge, Mass.
It's not only germs that can be contagious. Christakis, who has both a medical degree and a Ph.D. in sociology, has studied how individuals' social networks influence whether they are happy or sad -- and even skinny or fat. In their 2009 book Connected, Christakis and co-author James Fowler expanded the known instances of "network contagion" by identifying examples in everything from back pain to political beliefs. The idea that having fat friends could be contagious made headlines for Christakis, but his longer-lasting impact will come when his revolutionary understanding about social networks starts being applied to real-world crises.
Reading list: Not by Genes Alone, by Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd; The Mystery of Economic Growth, by Elhanan Helpman; Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert.
Wants to visit: New Zealand, Australia, and Peru.
Most interesting idea: That human culture and activities may be changing our genes.
Worst idea: That the United States needs to increase its troop strength in Afghanistan.
Gadget: Facebook and iPhone.
for explaining why it's our friends who define us.
medical sociologist | Harvard university | Cambridge, Mass.
It's not only germs that can be contagious. Christakis, who has both a medical degree and a Ph.D. in sociology, has studied how individuals' social networks influence whether they are happy or sad -- and even skinny or fat. In their 2009 book Connected, Christakis and co-author James Fowler expanded the known instances of "network contagion" by identifying examples in everything from back pain to political beliefs. The idea that having fat friends could be contagious made headlines for Christakis, but his longer-lasting impact will come when his revolutionary understanding about social networks starts being applied to real-world crises.
Reading list: Not by Genes Alone, by Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd; The Mystery of Economic Growth, by Elhanan Helpman; Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert.
Wants to visit: New Zealand, Australia, and Peru.
Most interesting idea: That human culture and activities may be changing our genes.
Worst idea: That the United States needs to increase its troop strength in Afghanistan.
Gadget: Facebook and iPhone.
