Nicholas Christakis: Friends are like us
We also create communities that reinforce our tendency to choose friends who are similar to ourselves.
For example, if our friends are overweight, we have a 45% likelihood of being overweight. If the friends of our friends are overweight, our probability of being overweight increases by 20%.
Researchers have also proven that happy people are often surrounded by a lot of happy people and unhappy people are surrounded by unhappy people. This can be a sign of friend selection and also of how emotions spread in networks.
The power of networks is also visible in an experiment performed by researchers that measured the spreading of friendly acts in a network. When people were treated positively, they were friendly to others as well. A chain reaction can mean that treatment of a person may depend on how two people that are complete strangers to him/her have treated each other.
Watch Christaki's talk here.
Read more news
DeployAI Partners Gather for Heart Beat Meeting in Helsinki
The European DeployAI project's partners gathered for the Heart Beat meeting hosted by Aalto University Executive Education in Helsinki.
Get to know us: Associate Professor Maria Sammalkorpi
Sammalkorpi received her doctorate from Helsinki University of Technology 2004. After her defence, she has worked as a researcher at the Universities of Princeton, Yale and Aalto.
A! Walk-Nature connection: Walk, pick, discuss
The afternoon adventure on Lehtisaari offered more than just a walk in the forest; it sparked conversations about renewed appreciation for the simple pleasures of life and the beauty of the Finnish wilderness...