Understanding Communication Networks via Web Based Experiments

1 Course Unit

How do new ideas spread online? Why do some take off and others fail? What determines when people will cooperate and when they will be selfish? Where do our social norms come from, and what happens when they are disrupted – as they were during the first year of the pandemic? Why is communicating about climate change so challenging? How can we make our corporate and university research teams more intelligent? The last decade in social science has seen remarkable breakthroughs in our answers to these and other profound questions about societal communication and evolution. One of the most powerful and influential tools behind these breakthroughs is Web-based social experiments. This course unveils the exciting new world of building Web-based experiments to study human collective behavior. Students will learn the big ideas behind Web-based experimental design, which will prepare them to understand the latest scientific breakthroughs in the study of social and cultural evolution, and even to design their own Web-based studies. This class does not involve coding and no programming experience is necessary. Instead, students will be introduced to a range of new experimental approaches, and will learn how they produce results that guide the policies that are currently used by governments, universities and corporations. This course will show you the science behind the big ideas and simple rules that are used to predict the future of our economy, our society and our culture. 1 Course Unit