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Damon Centola

Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering, UPenn

Damon Centola is the Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group. He is also a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Author of two books, most recently Change: How to Make Big Things Happen, his research centers on social networks and behavior change.

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Damon Centola

Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering, UPenn

Damon’s research centers on social networks and behavior change and includes social epidemiology, the diffusion of innovations and cultural norms, and the mobilization of social movements.

Damon Centola is the Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

Damon’s research centers on social networks and behavior change. His work has received numerous scientific awards, including the Goodman Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Sociological Methodology in 2011; the James Coleman Award for Outstanding Research in Rationality and Society in 2017; and the Harrison White Award for Outstanding Scholarly Book in 2019.  He was a developer of the NetLogo agent based modeling environment, and was awarded a U.S. Patent for inventing a method to promote diffusion in online networks. He is a member of the Sci Foo community and fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Contributions to The Starling Compendium

External Materials

Change
Change

How to Make Big Things Happen

When it comes to lasting change in what we think or the way we live, the dynamics are different: beliefs and behaviors are not transmitted from person to person in the simple way that a virus is. The real story of social change is more complex. When we are exposed to a new idea, our social networks guide our responses in striking and surprising ways.
How Behavior Spreads
How Behavior Spreads

The Science of Complex Contagions

How Behavior Spreads presents over a decade of original research examining how changes in societal behavior―in voting, health, technology, and finance―occur and the ways social networks can be used to influence how they propagate.