Nicholas Christakis is a medical sociologist and physician best known for his work on social networks and health. He is the current Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, and he is co-Director of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health’s Human Nature Lab. Christakis’ work focuses on the social determinants of health, social networks, and big data.
Christakis has made significant contributions to the study of social networks. In one of his most notable studies, Christakis and colleague James Fowler found that smoking habits could be spread through social networks. The study found that if one person in a person’s social network smoked, the person was more likely to smoke themselves. This finding has important implications for public health, as it suggests that interventions to reduce smoking rates should not only target individuals but also their social networks.
Christakis has also done important work on the role that social networks play in predicting epidemics. In a 2009 paper, Christakis and Fowler used data from the Framingham Heart Study to show that obesity spreads through social networks. The study found that when one person in a network became obese, the risk of obesity increased for their friends, siblings, and spouses. Christakis’ work on obesity has led to a greater understanding of how obesity spreads through social networks and how interventions to reduce obesity rates should target not only individuals but also their social contacts.
Christakis’ work on social networks has had a significant impact on our understanding of how diseases spread through populations. His work highlights the importance of considering the role of social networks in public health interventions.
