Week 10: Social influence and diffusion
Content for the week of Monday, March 23, 2026
Tuesday
Class Schedule:
- No in person class today.
- Do The Wisdom or Madness of Crowds Simulation and write a reflection on Brightspace.
Assignment Due:
- Turn in your Self Assessment Reflection on Brightspace
- R Lab 6 - Visualizing Power
- Social Search Assignment
- Reading Review
Thursday
Readings:
- Chapter 4, “Special People”, in Watts, D. J. (2011). Everything is Obvious: Once you know the answer. New York, NY: Crown Business.
- Duncan Watts on Common Sense
- (Optional) Centola, D., & Macy, M. (2007). Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 113(3), 702–734.
- (Optional) Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2012). Social contagion theory: Examining dynamic social networks and human behavior. Statistics in Medicine, 32, 556–577.
Weekly lecture:
- Social Influence and Contagion [22:12]
- Slides
Thursday
- In Class Activity