← back to search

Duncan J. Watts

University of the Arts · US
Area of research
Statistical and Nonlinear Physics · Sociology and Political Science
Research interest
Research interests include Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence, Complex Network Analysis Techniques, Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation, and Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies.
h-index
70
citations
97,629
works
234
NIH funding
primary concept
Computer science
email

Recent publications

The Task Space: An Integrative Framework for Team Research
Management Science 2026cited by 1position: contributordoi
A large-scale evaluation of commonsense knowledge in humans and large language models.
2026cited by 0position: contributordoi
Integrative experiments identify how punishment affects welfare in public goods games.
2026cited by 0position: contributordoi
Media Bias Detector: Designing and Implementing a Tool for Real-Time Selection and Framing Bias Analysis in News Coverage
Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2025cited by 8position: contributordoi
A research agenda for encouraging prosocial behaviour on social media.
2025cited by 1position: contributordoi
Hypothetical nudges provide directional but noisy estimates of real behavior change.
2025cited by 0position: contributordoi
Computational social science: past, present, and future
Handbook of Computational Social Science 2025cited by 0position: contributordoi
Quantifying the impact of misinformation and vaccine-skeptical content on Facebook.
2024cited by 42position: contributordoi
Misunderstanding the harms of online misinformation.
2024cited by 22position: contributordoi
The exciting potential and daunting challenge of using GPS human-mobility data for epidemic modeling.
2024cited by 8position: contributordoi
Causally estimating the effect of YouTube's recommender system using counterfactual bots.
2024cited by 4position: contributordoi
Experiment aversion does generalize, but it can also be mitigated.
2024cited by 1position: contributordoi
A framework for quantifying individual and collective common sense.
2024cited by 0position: contributordoi
Replies to commentaries on beyond playing 20 questions with nature.
2024cited by 0position: contributordoi
Weak Ties and the Origins of Network Science
Foundational Papers in Complexity Science: Volume 2 2024cited by 0position: contributordoi
Deplatforming did not decrease Parler users' activity on fringe social media.
2023cited by 5position: contributordoi
Beyond playing 20 questions with nature: Integrative experiment design in the social and behavioral sciences
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2022cited by 83position: lastdoi
Beyond Playing 20 Questions with Nature: Integrative Experiment Design in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
2022cited by 56position: lastdoi
Quantifying partisan news diets in Web and TV audiences.
2022cited by 14position: contributordoi
Task complexity moderates group synergy
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2021cited by 87position: lastdoi
Reducing opinion polarization: Effects of exposure to similar people with differing political views.
2021cited by 28position: contributordoi
Examining the consumption of radical content on YouTube.
2021cited by 27position: contributordoi
Task complexity moderates group synergy.
2021cited by 26position: contributordoi
A Large-Scale Comparative Study of Informal Social Networks in Firms
Management Science 2021cited by 23position: contributordoi
Measuring the news and its impact on democracy.
2021cited by 22position: contributordoi
Empirica: a virtual lab for high-throughput macro-level experiments.
2021cited by 12position: contributordoi
Success stories cause false beliefs about success
Judgment and Decision Making 2021cited by 10position: contributordoi
Evaluating the fake news problem at the scale of the information ecosystem.
2020cited by 117position: contributordoi
Measuring the predictability of life outcomes with a scientific mass collaboration.
2020cited by 91position: contributordoi
Objecting to experiments even while approving of the policies or treatments they compare.
2020cited by 11position: contributordoi

Grants

HNDS-I: Developing a Large-Scale Data Platform for Processing Algorithms for Epidemic Modeling
NSF2341932$998,0282024–2027PIRePORTER
EITM: The Structure, Evolution, and Function of Large-Scale Social Networks: Theory, Data, and Experiment.
NSF0339023$211,8422004–2006PIRePORTER
CAREER: Theory and Applications of Complex Social Networks
NSF0094162$371,8782001–2006PIRePORTER

Frequent collaborators

· 29 papers (2019–2026)Abdullah Almaatouq · Data & Society Research Institute6 papers (2020–2026)Mark E Whiting · Carnegie Mellon University5 papers (2021–2026)David Rothschild · Microsoft (United States)5 papers (2020–2025)Abdullah Almaatouq · IIT@MIT3 papers (2021–2022)Abdullah Almaatouq · Massachusetts Institute of Technology3 papers (2021–2026)Markus Mobius · Microsoft Research3 papers (2020–2022)Patrick R. Heck · Geisinger Health System3 papers (2019–2024) · 2 papers (2022–2022)Mark E. Whiting · Pacific Northwest National Laboratory2 papers (2022–2022) · 2 papers (2022–2022)Mohammed Alsobay · Massachusetts Institute of Technology2 papers (2021–2026)Michelle Meyer · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill2 papers (2020–2024)David G. Rand · Massachusetts Institute of Technology2 papers (2024–2026)Amir Ghasemian · Harvard University2 papers (2021–2024)Robert West · École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne2 papers (2023–2024)Manoel Horta Ribeiro · Public Library of Science2 papers (2023–2024)Christopher Chabris · Geisinger Neuroscience Institute2 papers (2020–2024)Jennifer Allen · Massachusetts Institute of Technology2 papers (2020–2024)Alex Pentland · Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology1 papers (2020–2020)