A new, counterintuitive theory for how social networks influence the spread of behaviorNew social movements, technologies, and public-health initiatives often struggle to take off, yet many diseases disperse rapidly without issue. Can the lessons learned from the viral diffusion of diseases be used to improve the spread of beneficial behaviors and innovations? In How Behavior Spreads, Damon Centola presents over a decade of original research examining how changes in societal behavior--in voting, health, technology, and finance—occur and the ways social networks can be used to influence how they propagate. Centola''s startling findings show that the same conditions accelerating the viral expansion of an epidemic unexpectedly inhibit the spread of behaviors. While it is commonly believed that "weak ties"—long-distance connections linking acquaintances—lead to the quicker spread of behaviors, in fact the exact opposite holds true. Centola demonstrates how the most well-known, intuitive ideas about social networks have caused past diffusion efforts to fail, and how such efforts might succeed in the future. Pioneering the use of Web-based methods to understand how changes in people''s social networks alter their behaviors, Centola illustrates the ways in which these insights can be applied to solve countless problems of organizational change, cultural evolution, and social innovation. His findings offer important lessons for public health workers, entrepreneurs, and activists looking to harness networks for social change.Practical and informative, How Behavior Spreads is a must-read for anyone interested in how the theory of social networks can transform our world.

''A remarkable and important guide to effecting change in our individual lives, businesses, societies - and beyond'' JONAH BERGER, bestselling author of ContagiousHow did movements like the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter take off when they did? How did Lord Kitchener recruit 2,000,000 volunteers at the start of World War I?Why did Twitter take hold while Google+ has failed?What surprising lessons can we learn from Covid 19?From the spread of Covid-19 to the rise of political polarization, from implicit bias to genetically modified food, from NASA to Netflix - it''s time to think differently about how change works.Professor Damon Centola is the world expert in the new science of networks. His ground-breaking research across areas as disparate as voting, health, technology and finance has highlighted powerful and highly effective new ways to ensure lasting change. In this book, Centola distils over a decade of deep experience into a fascinating new theory that challenges previous assumptions that new ideas are either contagious or not. Change shows that beliefs and behaviours are not transmitted from person to person in the simple way that a virus is. The real story of social change is more complex and much more interesting. When we are exposed to a new idea, our social networks guide our responses in striking and surprising ways. Drawing on deep-yet-accessible research and fascinating examples, Change presents a paradigm-shifting new science for understanding what drives change, recognising our blind spots and how we can change the world around us.

A new, counterintuitive theory for how social networks influence the spread of behaviorNew social movements, technologies, and public-health initiatives often struggle to take off, yet many diseases disperse rapidly without issue. Can the lessons learned from the viral diffusion of diseases be used to improve the spread of beneficial behaviors and innovations? In How Behavior Spreads, Damon Centola presents over a decade of original research examining how changes in societal behavior--in voting, health, technology, and finance—occur and the ways social networks can be used to influence how they propagate. Centola''s startling findings show that the same conditions accelerating the viral expansion of an epidemic unexpectedly inhibit the spread of behaviors. While it is commonly believed that "weak ties"—long-distance connections linking acquaintances—lead to the quicker spread of behaviors, in fact the exact opposite holds true. Centola demonstrates how the most well-known, intuitive ideas about social networks have caused past diffusion efforts to fail, and how such efforts might succeed in the future. Pioneering the use of Web-based methods to understand how changes in people''s social networks alter their behaviors, Centola illustrates the ways in which these insights can be applied to solve countless problems of organizational change, cultural evolution, and social innovation. His findings offer important lessons for public health workers, entrepreneurs, and activists looking to harness networks for social change.Practical and informative, How Behavior Spreads is a must-read for anyone interested in how the theory of social networks can transform our world.

''A remarkable and important guide to effecting change in our individual lives, businesses, societies - and beyond'' JONAH BERGER, bestselling author of ContagiousHow did movements like the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter take off when they did? How did Lord Kitchener recruit 2,000,000 volunteers at the start of World War I?Why did Twitter take hold while Google+ has failed?What surprising lessons can we learn from Covid 19?From the spread of Covid-19 to the rise of political polarization, from implicit bias to genetically modified food, from NASA to Netflix - it''s time to think differently about how change works.Professor Damon Centola is the world expert in the new science of networks. His ground-breaking research across areas as disparate as voting, health, technology and finance has highlighted powerful and highly effective new ways to ensure lasting change. In this book, Centola distils over a decade of deep experience into a fascinating new theory that challenges previous assumptions that new ideas are either contagious or not. Change shows that beliefs and behaviours are not transmitted from person to person in the simple way that a virus is. The real story of social change is more complex and much more interesting. When we are exposed to a new idea, our social networks guide our responses in striking and surprising ways. Drawing on deep-yet-accessible research and fascinating examples, Change presents a paradigm-shifting new science for understanding what drives change, recognising our blind spots and how we can change the world around us.