Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread：The Lessons from a New Science

Fromoneoftheworld’sleadingdatascientists，alandmarktourofthenewscienceofideaflow，offeringrevolutionaryinsightsintothemysteriesofcollectiveintelligenceandsocialinfluenceIftheBigDatarevolutionhasapresidinggenius，itisMIT’sAlex“Sandy”Pentland.Overyearsofgroundbreakingexperiments，hehasdistilledremarkablediscoveriessignificantenoughtobecomethebedrockofawholenewscientificfield：socialphysics.Humanshavemoreincommonwithbeesthanweliketoadmit：We’resocialcreaturesfirstandforemost.Ourmostimportanthabitsofaction—andmostbasicnotionsofcommonsense—arewiredintousthroughourcoordinationinsocialgroups.Socialphysicsisaboutideaflow，thewayhumansocialnetworksspreadideasandtransformthoseideasintobehaviors.Thankstothemillionsofdigitalbreadcrumbspeopleleavebehindviasmartphones，GPSdevices，andtheInternet，theamountofnewinformationwehaveabouthumanactivityistrulyprofound.Untilnow，sociologistshavedependedonlimiteddatasetsandsurveysthattellushowpeoplesaytheythinkandbehave，ratherthanwhattheyactuallydo.Asaresult，we’vebeenstuckwiththesamestalesocialstructures—classes，markets—andafocusonindividualactors，datasnapshots，andsteadystates.Pentlandshowsthat，infact，humansrespondmuchmorepowerfullytosocialincentivesthatinvolverewardingothersandstrengtheningthetiesthatbindthanincentivesthatinvolveonlytheirowneconomicself-interest.Pentlandandhisteamshavefoundthattheycanstudypatternsofinformationexchangeinasocialnetworkwithoutanyknowledgeoftheactualcontentoftheinformationandpredictwithstunningaccuracyhowproductiveandeffectivethatnetworkis，whetherit’sabusinessoranentirecity.Wecanmaximizeagroup’scollectiveintelligencetoimproveperformanceandusesocialincentivestocreateneworganizationsandguidethemthroughdisruptivechangeinawaythatmaximizesthegood.Ateverylevelofinteraction，fromsmallgroupstolargecities，socialnetworkscanbetunedtoincreaseexplorationandengagement，thusvastlyimprovingideaflow.SocialPhysicswillchangethewaywethinkabouthowwelearnandhowoursocialgroupswork—andcanbemadetoworkbetter，ateverylevelofsociety.Pentlandleadsreaderstotheedgeofthemostimportantrevolutioninthestudyofsocialbehaviorinageneration，anentirelynewwaytolookatlifeitself.