Back to Network Dynamics of Social Behavior
University of Pennsylvania

Network Dynamics of Social Behavior

How do revolutions emerge without anyone expecting them? How did social norms about same sex marriage change more rapidly than anyone anticipated? Why do some social innovations take off with relative ease, while others struggle for years without spreading? More generally, what are the forces that control the process of social evolution –from the fashions that we wear, to our beliefs about religious tolerance, to our ideas about the process of scientific discovery and the best ways to manage complex research organizations? The social world is complex and full of surprises. Our experiences and intuitions about the social world as individuals are often quite different from the behaviors that we observe emerging in large societies. Even minor changes to the structure of a social network - changes that are unobservable to individuals within those networks - can lead to radical shifts in the spread of new ideas and behaviors through a population. These “invisible” mathematical properties of social networks have powerful implications for the ways that teams solve problems, the social norms that are likely to emerge, and even the very future of our society. This course condenses the last decade of cutting-edge research on these topics into six modules. Each module provides an in-depth look at a particular research puzzle -with a focus on agent-based models and network theories of social change -and provides an interactive computational model for you try out and to use for making your own explorations! Learning objectives - after this course, students will be able to... - explain how computer models are used to study challenging social problems - describe how networks are used to represent the structure of social relationships - show how individual actions can lead to unintended collective behaviors - provide concrete examples of how social networks can influence social change - discuss how diffusion processes can explain the growth social movements, changes in cultural norms, and the success of team problem solving

Status: Social Sciences
Status: Culture
BeginnerCourse5 hours

Featured reviews

BV

4.0Reviewed Jun 11, 2020

Great content and short/objective videos. One only comment is that, sometimes, the implementation of the models is a bit unclear.

PP

5.0Reviewed Jul 17, 2018

excellent course accessible to all. highly recommended.Really looking forward to more courses from this team.

JW

5.0Reviewed Jan 16, 2021

A very enjoyable, useful and well crafted course. Should serve well as an introduction to the field and may be useful to people working any number of industries.

MY

4.0Reviewed Apr 6, 2020

For me, from a non-mathematical background, it was an excellent introductory course. I wish it can paw the way for more in-depth exploration around the issue and advance steps.

CZ

4.0Reviewed Feb 22, 2018

very good overview. i'm missing the maths behind the theory which will enable me to apply the knowledge to own problems

RG

4.0Reviewed Sep 1, 2019

Awesome material and lessons. Only could not have five stars because could not download Netlogo models

LI

5.0Reviewed Jun 27, 2019

Fantastic course! Very good introduction to network dynamics for someone who has never explored this field of research.

JP

5.0Reviewed Apr 11, 2020

A short course (I completed in a single evening) but really interesting with lots of potential applications.

RH

4.0Reviewed Jan 8, 2018

An good course that will provide gist of Agent Based Modeling with out dragging it too long. Introduces an Agent Based Modeling software NetLogo with examples and codes.

KF

5.0Reviewed Oct 6, 2022

R​eally well presented and easy to follow course - super fascinating too! Would love to learn more on this topic.

UD

5.0Reviewed Jun 16, 2022

This is one of the best courses I have taken on Coursera so far. Kudos to professors Damon and Joshua!

AL

5.0Reviewed Mar 20, 2020

I have never learned agent model in social network courses in graduate school. This course brings me up to date about the aggregate effects of unintended individual behaviors

All reviews

Showing: 20 of 97

Guilherme Sganserla Torres
3.0
Reviewed Oct 4, 2019
Navaneethan Santhanam
4.0
Reviewed Jun 15, 2018
Muru Zhang
5.0
Reviewed Nov 10, 2019
Jean-Philippe Corbeil
5.0
Reviewed Jan 15, 2018
Ada Leung
5.0
Reviewed Mar 21, 2020
Agata Slota
5.0
Reviewed Mar 21, 2021
pranav nerurkar
5.0
Reviewed Sep 5, 2018
Yijun Chen
4.0
Reviewed Jul 14, 2020
赵志豪
4.0
Reviewed May 6, 2021
Kipkem Henry
5.0
Reviewed Jun 14, 2020
Jarryd Gillen
5.0
Reviewed Jun 27, 2019
Jonathan Smith
5.0
Reviewed Sep 14, 2019
김채연
5.0
Reviewed Feb 17, 2018
Thiago Earp
5.0
Reviewed Dec 13, 2018
Sonia López-Baissón
5.0
Reviewed Oct 22, 2018
David Bernal
5.0
Reviewed Jul 19, 2018
Angeline Thieblin
5.0
Reviewed Nov 27, 2017
Sarah Lorraine Derrick
5.0
Reviewed Jan 22, 2018
정소현
5.0
Reviewed Jun 30, 2019
Amy Storrow
5.0
Reviewed Jan 18, 2018