Nicholas Christakis

About

Nicholas A. Christakis is the Director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale. The lab brings together scholars from various fields including medicine, engineering, sociology, economics, computer science, biology, statistics, applied math, and physics to explore diverse research areas. The lab provides an environment for researchers to engage with new approaches and methodologies in understanding human nature.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Geography
• Data science
• Demography
• Statistics
• World Wide Web
• Human–computer interaction

Selected publications

• Population flow drives spatio-temporal distribution of COVID-19 in China

  Nature · 2020 · 905 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• AI and the transformation of social science research

  Science · 2023 · 303 citations

  Careful bias management and data fidelity are key.

  DOI

• Vulnerable robots positively shape human conversational dynamics in a human–robot team

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 133 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  = 51 groups). We find that people in groups with a robot making vulnerable statements converse substantially more with each other, distribute their conversation somewhat more equally, and perceive their groups more positively compared to control groups with a robot that either makes neutral statements or no statements at the end of each round. Shifts in robot speech have the power not only to affect how people interact with robots, but also how people interact with each other, offering the prosp…

  DOI

• Using Trellis software to enhance high-quality large-scale network data collection in the field

  Social Networks · 2021 · 18 citations

  ' ability to provide unprecedented metadata to monitor and report on the data collection process including artifactual variability based on surveyors, time of day, or location.

  PublisherDOI

• Cognitive representations of social networks in isolated villages

  Nature Human Behaviour · 2025-06-16 · 15 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AG017548

  NIH · $3.0M · 2007

• NIH Grant R01AG015326

  NIH · $910k · 2002

• NIH Grant P01AG031093

  NIH · $21.6M · 2014

Frequent coauthors

• Richard L. Schilsky

  American Society of Clinical Oncology

  137 shared

• James E. Herndon

  Duke University

  136 shared

• Jane C. Weeks

  King Edward Memorial Hospital

  136 shared

• I. Craig Henderson

  135 shared

• Elizabeth B. Lamont

  Medidata (United States)

  133 shared

• James H. Fowler

  University of California, San Diego

  100 shared

• Craig C. Earle

  81 shared

• Rogério Lilenbaum

  Yale University

  55 shared

Labs

• Human Nature LabPI

  We bring together scholars from throughout Yale in many fields, including medicine, engineering, sociology, economics, computer science, biology, statistics, applied math, and physics. The Human Nature Lab provides a fertile environment for our researchers to engage new approaches and methodologies.

Education

• Ph.D., Social Science

  Harvard University

  1995

• M.D.

  Harvard Medical School

  1990

• Other

  Harvard College

  1984

Similar researchers at Yale University

• Douglas L. Rothmanh-125
• D.S. Fahmeed Hyderh-85
• Andre Levchenkoh-82