Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread

Alex Pentland explains the new science of social physics, which is about the way human social networks spread ideas and transform those ideas into behaviors. Pentland directs MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory and his new book Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread: The Lessons from a New Science, explores the patterns of information exchange in social networks, the ways humans are like bees, and how networks large and small can be tuned to increase exploration and community engagement.