HCP Professor Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, and his colleague James Fowler, of the University of California, San Diego, recently published Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. The book elaborates on the authors’ research about network connections and how they influence individuals’ happiness, depression, death, obesity, and smoking.  

In an interview with the Boston Globe, Christakis said that the takeaway from his book is that, “Whether we appreciate it or not, we live out our lives surrounded by an intricate pattern of social connections….We’re all embedded in this network; it affects us profoundly and we may be unaware of its existence, of its effect on us.”  He continued to emphasize that people must “recognize the influence we can all have on each other.”

For more information about Christakis’ new book, read the Boston Globe interview, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and an article in NewScientist. For more information about Christakis’ work, visit his website.