Nicholas A. Christakis

@nachristakis.bsky.social

30K followers 720 following 1.5K posts

Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. Sociologist. Network Scientist. Physician. Author of Apollo's Arrow; Blueprint; Connected; and Death Foretold. Director of the Human Nature Lab: https://humannaturelab.net .. more

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Nicholas A. Christakis is a Greek American sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the social, economic, biological, and evolutionary determinants of human welfare. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the co-director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. .. more

Public Health 23%

Physics 18%

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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 29d

What role do social networks – and the precise nature and structure of social interactions – play in the production of public goods and in human welfare? What about social contagion?

A thread on some of our #HNL experiments with many thousands of participants from 2010 to the present. 1/

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 56m

In this latest mini-documentary from For the Love of Science, Li Murphy talks about her incredible work studying swarms of Mormon crickets, with many insights into how to be a scientist and the joys and challenges it presents. Plus the science itself is incredibly cool. m.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ep...

Into the Swarm

YouTube video by For the Love of Science

m.youtube.com

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1h

Me too. :-)

Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 6h

See you tonight in Den Grå Hal in #Copenhagen. The bartenders and the band Public Dancer are ready to make your night one of a kind! And I’ve got some vivid stories and slides. Doors open at 19:00. #science #BLUEPRINTbook www.scienceandcocktails.org/en/events/co...

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 19h

300 Years of Aqueduct Deposits May Link the Plague of Cyprian to the Decline of Roman Nimes www.discovermagazine.com/300-years-of...

300 Years of Aqueduct Deposits May Link the Plague of Cyprian to the Decline of Roman Nîmes

Discover what an ancient aqueduct can tell us about the rise and fall of “the French Rome” under Roman rule.

www.discovermagazine.com

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Rebecca Sear, Trevon D. Logan , and 1 more Nicholas A. Christakis, Rebecca Sear, Trevon D. Logan, Amy W. Ando

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 1d

"Over the five years following a sexual assault, victims’ employment falls by 6 percentage points and annual earnings decline... These effects persist for at least a decade and correspond to a 15% decline in employment, 17% earnings loss, and 28% rise in anti-depressant use"

AEA Journals @aeajournals.bsky.social · 1d

Forthcoming in the AER: "The Economic Impacts of Sexual Assault" by Abi Adams, Kristiina Huttunen, Emily Nix, and Ning Zhang.

The Economic Impacts of Sexual Assault

(Forthcoming Article) - We estimate the economic impacts of sexual assault using population-wide Finnish police reports and hospital admissions. Over the five years following a sexual assault, victims’ employment falls by 6 percentage points and annual earnings decline by ¤1,500, alongside a 6 percentage point increase in anti-depressant use, relative to otherwise observationally equivalent women. These effects persist for at least a decade and correspond to a 15% decline in employment, 17% earnings loss, and 28% rise in anti-depressant use relative to pre-assault baselines. Sexual assault also generates spillover effects to victims’ networks: female schoolmates and victims’ parents experience significant mental health deterioration.

www.aeaweb.org

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · 1d

Genome-wide analysis of social behaviour across social domains, reporters and developmental stages: a meta-regression approach

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 21 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02551-zA genome-wide meta-regression analysis of social behaviour studying ~500,000 observations from ~70,000 individuals, modelling context-specific SNP variation as explained by social domains, informants and age, identified six associated loci.

dlvr.it

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Nicholas A. Christakis, Brendan Nyhan , and 6 more Stephen M. Walt, Nicholas A. Christakis, Brendan Nyhan, Scott A. Imberman, Melissa Sweet, Barrett, Kate Starbird, Larry W. Hunter, David Darmofal

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

It really is striking how many authoritarian states have ended up in this exact same place, where the leader seizes control of scientific inquiry. Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union, Aryan Physics in the Third Reich, Great Leap Forward (also related to Lysenko) in China.

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

Lysenkoism lives. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/s...

White House Moves to Take Control of N.I.H. Grants

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Nicholas A. Christakis, Brendan Nyhan , and 7 more Stephen M. Walt, Nicholas A. Christakis, Brendan Nyhan, Robert C. Richards, Scott A. Imberman, Melissa Sweet, Barrett, Kate Starbird, Alessandro Rigolon, David Darmofal

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

Lysenkoism lives. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/s...

White House Moves to Take Control of N.I.H. Grants

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Nicholas A. Christakis, Joshua S. Weitz

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 2d

This miracle is the fruit of generations of enormous and bipartisan investments of public research support for our universities.

Future versions of this miracle are what we are currently losing, due to the US Administration’s decision to shatter the public’s partnership with our universities.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 2d

A cancer vaccine succeeded in a clinical trial in preventing the recurrence of melanoma, a result experts say is a breakthrough for mRNA-based treatments.

Trials for lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and other diseases' vaccines are also underway.