Sociology 204: Social Networks
Princeton University, Spring 2015
Instructor: Matthew Salganik
Preceptors:
- Sarah James
- Andres Lajous
- Andrew Ledford
- Nicole Pangborn
- Han Zhang
Overview
This course provides students an introduction to the study of social networks. We will focus on understanding the causes and consequences of the patterns of relationships between individuals. Topics will include the small-world puzzle (six degrees of separation), the strength of weak ties, and the spread of diseases and fads.
See the logistics page for more information about time and location, prerequisites, required texts, grading, regrading procedures, collaboration policy, precept philosophy, precept conflicts, and Piazza.
Assessment and grading
Student grades will be based on the following:
- In-class midterm exam: 25%
- In-class final exam: 45%
The in-class final exam will cover the material from the entire semester. The exam will be Tuesday, May 19 from 1:30pm to 4:30pm in Jadwin Hall A09 and Jadwin Hall A10. If you need to reschedule the final exam time, please follow the standard university rescheduling policies for final exams.
- Homework/Precept: 30%
Each precept session will have an assignment that will serve as the basis of the discussion. Some assignments will involve data collection and analysis, while others will involve writing. Hard copies of these assignments will be due in class each Wednesday. If you cannot be in class on Wednesday, you can email your assignment to the leader of your precept, but they must receive it by 10am on Wednesday. If you do not turn in your assignment on time, you can still turn it in at your precept for a reduced grade (20% penalty). After your precept, you will not be able to submit your assignment for a grade unless you have a letter from the Dean of your college.
The midterm exam will take place on Wednesday March 11, 2015 during the regular class time. If you have a conflict during this time, please read the change of exam time request policy.
Open access
I have marked open access materials with a 
and closed access materials with a 
. If you do not have access to a university library, copies of many of the closed access articles can be found through Google Scholar.
Schedule
Readings
Introduction (2/2/15)
- No reading assigned.
The connected age and the small world problem (2/4/15)
- Watts, Preface and Chapter 1.
- Milgram, S. (1967). The small world problem. Psychology Today, 1:62-67. (Available from Blackboard)
- Travers, J. and Milgram, S. (1969). An experimental study of the small world problem. Sociometry, 32(4):425-443.
- Kleinfeld, J.S. (2002). The small world problem. Society, 39(2):61-66. (Available from Blackboard)
There will be no precept during the first week of the course.
More on the small world problem and some history (2/9/15)
- Granovetter, M. (2003). Ignorance, knowledge, and outcomes in a small world. Science, 301:773-774.
- Dodds, P.S., Muhamad, R., and Watts, D.J. (2003). An experimental study of search in a global social networks. Science, 301:827-829.
- Watts, Chapter 2.
- Erdos-Reyni random graph animation by Uri Wilensky. (optional)
Understanding the small world phenomena (2/11/15)
- Watts, Chapter 3.
- Watts, D.J. and Strogatz, S.H. (1998). Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks. Nature 393, 440-442.
- Victor, B. (2011). Scientific Communication As Sequential Art.
- Watts, D.J. (1999). Networks, dynamics, and the small world phenomenon. American Journal of Sociology, 105(2):493-527.
- Watts-Strogatz small world model animation by Eytan Bakshy and Lada Adamic. (optional)
Degree distributions and power laws (2/16/15)
- Watts, Chapter 4, 101-114.
- Barabasi, A.L. and Bonabeau, E. (2003) Scale-free networks. Scientific American, 50-59. (Available from blackboard)
- Barabasi, A.L. and Albert, R. (1999) The emergence of scaling in random networks. Science, 286:509-512.
- Barabasi-Albert random graph animation by Eytan Bakshy and Lada Adamic. (optional)
- Liljeros, F. et al. (2001). The web of human sexual contacts. Nature, 411:907-908 with comment and rejoinder.
Foci (2/18/15)
- Gladwell, M. (1999). Six degrees of Lois Weisberg. The New Yorker.
- Watts, Chapter 4, 114-129.
- Feld, S.L. (1981) The focused organization of social ties. American Journal of Sociology, 86(5):1015-1035.
Social search (2/23/15)
- Watts, Chapter 5.
- Lee, N.H. (1969). The Search for an Abortionist: Preface, Chapter 1, and Chapter 5. (Available from blackboard).
Spread of disease in networks (2/25/15)
- Watts, Chapter 6.
- Bearman, P.S., Moody, J.M., and Stovel, K. (2004). Chains of affection: The structure of adolescent romantic and sexual networks. American Journal of Sociology, 110(1):44-91.
The madness of crowds (3/2/15)
- Watts, Chapter 7.
- Asch, S.E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure. Scientific American, 193(5):31-35. (Available on Blackboard)
- Easley D. and Kleinberg, J. (2010). Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Chapter 16.
- Tierney, J. (2007). Diet and fat: A severe case of mistaken consensus. New York Times.
Thresholds, cascades, and predictability (3/4/15)
- Gladwell, M. (1996). The tipping point. The New Yorker. (Available on Blackboard)
- Watts, Chapter 8.
- Watts, D.J. (2002). A simple model of global cascades on random networks. PNAS, 99:5766-5771.
Cascades and fads in cultural markets (3/9/15)
- Hedstrom, P. (2006). Experimental macro sociology: Predicting the next best seller. Science, 311:786-787.
- Salganik, M.J., Dodds, P.S., and Watts, D.J. (2006). Experimental study of inequality and unpredictability in an artificial cultural market. Science, 311:854-856.
- Salganik, M.J., and Watts, D.J. (2008). Leading the herd astray: Experimental study of self-fulfilling prophecies in an artificial cultural market. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71:338-355.
Midterm exam (3/11/15)
- 50 minute in-class midterm exam.
Strength of weak ties (3/23/15)
- Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380.
Weak ties and complex contagion (3/25/15)
- Centola, D. and Macy, M.W. (2007). Complex contagion and the weakness of long ties. American Journal of Sociology, 113(3):702-734.
- Centola, D. (2010). The spread of behavior in an online social network experiment. Science, 329(5996):1194-1197.
Core discussion networks of Americans (3/30/15)
- Fountain, H. (2006). The lonely American just got a bit lonelier. The New York Times, July 2.
- McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., and Brashears, M.E. (2006). Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades. American Sociological Review, 71(3):353-375.
- Fischer, C. (2009). The 2004 GSS finding of shrunken social networks: An artifact? American Sociological Review, 74(4):657-669.
- McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., and Brashears, M.E. (2009). Models and marginals: Using survey evidence to study social networks. American Sociological Review, 74(4):670-681.
Friends of friends (4/1/15)
- Strogatz, S. (2012). Friends you can count on. New York Times, September 17.
- Christakis, N.A. (2010). How social networks predict epidemics. TED Talk.
- Christakis, N.A. and Fowler, J.H. (2010). Social network sensors for early detection of contagious outbreaks. PLoS ONE 5(9):e12948.
Networks and hidden populations at risk for HIV (4/6/15)
- Bernard, H.R. et al. (2010). Counting hard-to-count populations: The network scale-up method for public health. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 86:ii11-ii15.
- Feehan et al. (2015). Quality vs. Quantity: A survey experiment to improve the network scale-up method. Working paper. (Available from Blackboard)
Concurrency and the spread of HIV (4/8/15)
- Donnelly, J. (2007) The Plague of Nations New York Times.
- Epstein, H. (2004) The Fidelity Fix New York Times Magazine.
- Mah T. and Halperin, D. (2010) Concurrent Sexual Partnerships and the HIV Epidemics in Africa: Evidence to Move Forward. AIDS and Behavior.
- Sawers, L. and Stillwaggon E. (2010) Concurrent sexual partnerships do not explain the HIV epidemics in Africa: a systematic review of the evidence. Journal of the International AIDS Society.
- Epstein, H. and Morris, M. (2011) Concurrent partnerships and HIV: An inconvenient truth Journal of the International AIDS Society.
Who knows what about who? (4/13/15)
- Goel, S. et al. (2010) Real and perceived attitude agreement in social networks. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
- Cowan, S. (2014) Secrets and Misperceptions: The Creation of Self-Fulfilling Illusions Sociological Science.
Obesity is contagious . . . maybe (4/15/15)
- Thompson, C. (2009). Are your friends making you fat? New York Times Magazine, September 13.
- Watch James Fowler on The Colbert Report.
- Christakis, N.A. and Fowler, J.H. (2007). The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. New England Journal of Medicine, 357:370-379.
- Johns, D. (2011). Disconnected? Slate.
- Lyons, R. (2011). The spread of evidence-poor medicine via flawed social-network analysis. Statistics, Politics and Policy, 2(1): Article 2.
Experimental studies of contagion (4/20/15)
- Nickerson, D.W. (2008). Is voting contagious? Evidence from two field experiments. American Political Science Review, 102(1):49-57.
- Kramer, A.D.I. et al (2014) Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. PNAS.
Going viral (4/22/15)
- Goel, S. et al (in press) The structural virality of online di ffusion. Management Science.
- Facebook Data Science (2014) Can cascades be predicted?.
- Cheng et al. (2014) Can cascades be predicted?. WWW.
Digital traces (4/27/15)
- Wikipedia page on sensitivity and specificity.
- Wuchty, S. (2009). What is a social tie? PNAS, 106(36):15099-15100.
- Eagle, N., Pentland, A., and Lazer, D. (2009). Inferring social network structure using mobile phone data. PNAS, 106(36):15274-15278 with comment and reply.
- Jones, J.J., et al. (2013). Inferring tie strength from online directed behavior. PLOS One, 8(1):e521168. (Note: When reading this paper, please read the Materials and Methods section after the Introduction and before Results.)
What Facebook knows (4/29/15)
- Simonite, T. (2012). What Facebook knows. MIT Technology Review.
- Bakshy, E. et al. (2012). The role of social networks in information diffusion. Proceedings of the 21st international conference on World Wide Web (WWW), 519-528.
- Bakshy, E. et al. (2012). Social influence in social advertising: Evidence from field experiments. Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC), 146-161.
