Publications

Publications

Articles

Articles

2026

Watts, Duncan J.; Lazer, David

Computational Social Science: Past, Present, and Future Book Section

In: Yasseri, Taha (Ed.): Handbook of Computational Social Science, Oxford University Press, 2026.

BibTeX

Alsobay, Mohammed; Rand, David G.; Watts, Duncan J.; Almaatouq, Abdullah

Integrative experiments identify how punishment affects welfare in public goods games Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 392, no. 6794, 2026.

BibTeX

Hu, Xinlan Emily; Whiting, Mark E.; Gandhi, Linnea; Watts, Duncan J.; Almaatouq, Abdullah

The Task Space: An Integrative Framework for Team Research Journal Article

In: Management Science, 2026.

BibTeX

Nguyen, Tuan Dung; Watts, Duncan J.; Whiting, Mark E.

A large-scale evaluation of commonsense knowledge in humans and large language models Journal Article

In: PNAS nexus, vol. 5, no. 3, 2026.

BibTeX

2025

Tohidi, Amir; Haider, Samar; Watts, Duncan J.

Rethinking news framing with large language models Journal Article

In: Scientific Reports, 2025.

BibTeX

Gandhi, Linnea; Kiyawat, Anoushka; Camerer, Colin; Watts, Duncan J.

Hypothetical nudges provide directional but noisy estimates of real behavior change Journal Article

In: Communications Psychology, vol. 3, no. 1, 2025.

BibTeX

Hosseinmardi, Homa; Wolken, Samuel; Rothschild, David M.; Watts, Duncan J.

Unpacking media bias in the growing divide between cable and network news Journal Article

In: Scientific Reports, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025.

BibTeX

Wang, Jenny S.; Haider, Samar; Tohidi, Amir; Gupta, Anushkaa; Zhang, Yuxuan; CallisonBurch, Chris; Rothschild, David; Watts, Duncan J.

Media Bias Detector: Designing and Implementing a Tool for Real-Time Selection and Framing Bias Analysis in News Coverage Journal Article

In: In Proceedings of the, vol. 2025, 2025.

BibTeX

Dorr, Timothy; Nagpal, Trisha; Watts, Duncan J.; Bail, Christopher

A research agenda for encouraging prosocial behavior on social media Journal Article

In: Nature Human Behaviour, no. 9, 2025.

BibTeX

2024

Watts, Duncan J.

Five Feet at a Time Book Section

In: Stark, David (Ed.): Practicing Sociology: Tacit Knowledge for the Social Scientific Craft, pp. 254-266, Columbia University Press, 2024.

BibTeX

Barreras, Francisco; Watts, Duncan J.

The exciting potential and daunting challenge of using GPS human-mobility data for epidemic modeling Journal Article

In: Nature Computational Science, 2024.

BibTeX

Budak, Ceren; Nyhan, Brendan; Rothschild, David M.; Thorson, Emily; Watts, Duncan J.

Misunderstanding the harms of online misinformation Journal Article

In: Nature, vol. 630, no. 8015, 2024.

BibTeX

Allen, Jennifer; Watts, Duncan J.; Rand, David G.

Quantifying the impact of misinformation and vaccine-skeptical content on Facebook Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 384, no. 6699, 2024.

BibTeX

Vogt, Randi L.; Heck, Patrick R.; Watts, Duncan J.; Chabris, Christopher F.; Meyer, Michelle N.

Experiment aversion does generalize, but it can also be mitigated Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, no. 20, 2024.

BibTeX

Almaatouq, Abdullah; Alsobay, Mohammed; Yin, Ming; Watts, Duncan J.

The effects of group composition and dynamics on collective performance Journal Article

In: Topics in cognitive science, vol. 16, no. 2, 2024.

BibTeX

Whiting, Mark E.; Watts, Duncan J.

A framework for quantifying individual and collective common sense Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, no. 4, 2024.

BibTeX

Hosseinmardi, Homa; Ghasemian, Amir; Rivera-Lanas, Miguel; Ribeiro, Manoel Horta; West, Robert; Watts, Duncan J.

Causally estimating the effect of YouTube's recommender system using counterfactual bots Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, no. 8, 2024.

BibTeX

Almaatouq, Abdullah; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Suchow, Jordan W.; Whiting, Mark E.; Evans, James; Watts, Duncan J.

Beyond playing 20 questions with nature: Integrative experiment design in the social and behavioral sciences Journal Article

In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 47, 2024.

BibTeX

2023

Almaatouq, Abdullah; Alsobay, Mohammed; Yin, Ming; Watts, Duncan J.

The Effects of Group Composition and Dynamics on Collective Performance Journal Article

In: Topics in Cognitive Science, 2023.

BibTeX

Ribeiro, Manoel Horta; Hosseinmardi, Homa; West, Robert; Watts, Duncan J.

Deplatforming did not decrease Parler users' activity on fringe social media Journal Article

In: PNAS Nexus, vol. 2, no. 3, 2023.

BibTeX

2022

Muise, Daniel; Hosseinmardi, Homa; Howland, Baird; Mobius, Markus; Rothschild, David; Watts, Duncan J.

Quantifying partisan news diets in Web and TV audiences Journal Article

In: Science Advances, vol. 8, no. 28, 2022.

BibTeX

2021

Balietti, Stefano; Getoor, Lise; Goldstein, Daniel G.; Watts, Duncan J.

Reducing Opinion Polarization: Effects of Exposure to Similar People with Differing Political Views Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 118, no. 52, 2021.

BibTeX

Lifchits, George; Anderson, Ashton; Goldstein, Daniel G.; Hofman, Jake M.; Watts, Duncan J.

Success Stories Cause False Beliefs about Success Journal Article

In: Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16, no. 6, 2021.

BibTeX

Almaatouq, Abdullah; Alsobay, Mohammed; Yin, Ming; Watts, Duncan J.

Task Complexity Moderates Group Synergy Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 118, no. 36, 2021.

BibTeX

Hofman, Jake M.; Watts, Duncan J.; Athey, Susan; Garip, Filiz; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Kleinberg, Jon; Margetts, Helen; others,

Integrating Explanation and Prediction in Computational Social Science Journal Article

In: Nature, vol. 595, no. 7866, pp. 181–88, 2021.

BibTeX

Hosseinmardi, Homa; Ghasemian, Amir; Clauset, Aaron; Mobius, Markus; Rothschild, David M.; Watts, Duncan J.

Examining the Consumption of Radical Content on YouTube Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 118, no. 32, 2021.

BibTeX

Allen, Jennifer; Mobius, Markus; Rothschild, David M.; Watts, Duncan J.

Research Note: Examining Potential Bias in Large-Scale Censored Data Journal Article

In: Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2021.

BibTeX

Jacobs, Abigail Z.; Watts, Duncan J.

A Large-Scale Comparative Study of Informal Social Networks in Firms Journal Article

In: Management Science, vol. 67, no. 9, pp. 5489-5509, 2021.

BibTeX

Konitzer, T.; Allen, J.; Eckman, S.; Howland, B.

Comparing Estimates of News Consumption from Survey and Passively Collected Behavioral Data Journal Article

In: Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 85, pp. 347-370, 2021.

BibTeX

Watts, Duncan J.; Rothschild, David M.; Mobius, Markus

Measuring the news and its impact on democracy Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 15, 2021.

BibTeX

Almaatouq, Abdullah; Becker, Joshua; Houghton, James P.; Paton, Nicolas; Watts, Duncan J.; Whiting, Mark E.

Empirica: a virtual lab for high-throughput macro-level experiments Journal Article

In: Behavior Research Methods, 2021.

BibTeX

2020

Lazer, David MJ; Pentland, Alex; Watts, Duncan J; Aral, Sinan; Athey, Susan; Contractor, Noshir; Freelon, Deen; Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra; King, Gary; Margetts, Helen; Nelson, Alondra; Salganik, Matthew J; Strohmaier, Markus; Vespignani, Alessandro; Wagner, Claudia

Computational social science: Obstacles and opportunities Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 369, no. 6507, pp. 1060-1062, 2020.

BibTeX

Heck, Patrick R; Chabris, Christopher F; Watts, Duncan J; Meyer, Michelle N

Objecting to experiments even while approving of the policies or treatments they compare Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117, no. 32, pp. 18948-18950, 2020.

BibTeX

Allen, Jennifer; Howland, Baird; Rothschild, David M.; Watts, Duncan J.

Evaluating the Fake News Problem at the Scale of the Information Ecosystem Journal Article

In: Science Advances, vol. 6, no. 14, pp. eaay3539, 2020.

BibTeX

Salganik, Matthew; others,

Measuring the predictability of life outcomes with a scientific mass collaboration Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020.

BibTeX

2019

Risi, Joseph; Sharma, Amit; Shah, Rohan; Connelly, Matthew; Watts, Duncan J.

Predicting History Journal Article

In: Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 10, pp. 41562-019, 2019.

BibTeX

Meyer, Michelle N.; Heck, Patrick R.; Holtzman, Geoffrey S.; Anderson, Stephen M.; Cai, William; Watts, Duncan J.; Chabris, Christopher F.

Objecting to experimentally comparing two unobjectionable policies of treatments Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019.

BibTeX

2018

Watts, Duncan J.

The Common Sense Presidency Book Section

In: Sunstein, Cass R. (Ed.): Can it Happen Here? Authoritarianism in America, Harper Collins, 2018.

BibTeX

Sharma, Amit; Hofman, Jake; Watts, Duncan J.

Split-door criterion: Identification of causal effects through auxiliary outcomes Journal Article

In: Annals of Applied Statistics, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 2699-2733, 2018.

BibTeX

Lazer, David; others,

The science of fake news: Addressing fake news requires a multidisciplinary effort Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 359, no. 6380, pp. 1094-1096, 2018.

BibTeX

Benjamin, Daniel J.; others,

Redefine statistical significance Journal Article

In: Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 2, pp. 6–10, 2018.

BibTeX

2017

Jasny, Barbara; others,

Fostering reproducibility in industry-academia research Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 357, no. 6353, pp. 759-761, 2017.

BibTeX

Hofman, Jake; Sharma, Amit; Watts, Duncan J.

Prediction and explanation in social systems Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 355, no. 6324, pp. 486-488, 2017.

BibTeX

Mao, Andrew; Dworkin, Lili; Suri, Siddharth; Watts, Duncan J.

Resilient cooperators stabilize cooperation in a long-run Prisoner's Dilemma Experiment Journal Article

In: Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 12800, 2017.

BibTeX

Watts, Duncan J.

Should social science be more solution oriented? Journal Article

In: Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 1, no. 0015, 2017.

BibTeX

Watts, Duncan J.

Response to Turco and Zuckerman: Comment on 'Common Sense and Sociological Explanations' Journal Article

In: American Journal of Sociology, vol. 122, no. 4, pp. 1292-1299, 2017.

BibTeX

2016

Watts, Duncan J.

Small-world Graphs Book Section

In: Galeotti, A.; Bramoulle, Y.; Rogers, B. (Ed.): Oxford Handbook on the Economics of Networks, pp. 9-29, Oxford University Press, 2016.

BibTeX

Mao, Andrew; Mason, Winter A.; Suri, Siddharth; Watts, Duncan J.

An Experimental Study of Team Size and Performance on a Complex Task Journal Article

In: PLoS One, 2016.

BibTeX

Martin, Travis; Anderson, Ashton; Sharma, Amit; Hofman, Jake; Watts, Duncan J.

Exploring limits to prediction in complex social systems: Predicting cascade size on Twitter Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 25th International World Wide Web Conference, 2016.

BibTeX

2015

Goel, Sharad; Anderson, Ashton; Hofman, Jake; Watts, Duncan J.

The structural virality of online diffusion Journal Article

In: Management Science, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 180-196, 2015.

BibTeX

Budak, Ceren; Watts, Duncan J.

Dissecting the Spirit of Gezi: Influence vs Journal Article

In: Selection in the Occupy Gezi Movement. Sociological Science, vol. 2, pp. 370-397, 2015.

BibTeX

Sharma, Amit; Hofman, Jake; Watts, Duncan J.

Estimating the causal impact of recommendation systems Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 16th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, 2015.

BibTeX

2014

Watts, Duncan J.

Common Sense and Sociological Explanations Journal Article

In: American Journal of Sociology, vol. 120, no. 2, pp. 313-351, 2014.

BibTeX

Brummitt, Charles D.; Sethi, Rajiv; Watts, Duncan J.

Inside Money, Procyclical Leverage, and Banking Catastrophes Journal Article

In: PLoS One, 2014.

BibTeX

Mason, Winter; Suri, Siddharth; Watts, Duncan J.

Long run learning in games of cooperation Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, 2014.

BibTeX

Anderson, Ashton; Goel, Sharad; Huber, Gregory; Malhotra, Neil; Watts, Duncan J.

Political Ideology and Racial Preferences in Online Dating Journal Article

In: Sociological Science, 2014.

BibTeX

2013

Wunder, Michael; Suri, Siddharth; Watts, Duncan J.

Empirical Agent Based Models of Cooperation in Public Goods Games Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 14th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, 2013.

BibTeX

2012

Wang, Jing; Suri, Siddharth; Watts, Duncan J.

Cooperation and assortativity with dynamic partner updating Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 109, no. 36, pp. 14363-14368, 2012.

BibTeX

Goel, Sharad; Goldstein, Dan; Watts, Duncan J.

The structure of online diffusion Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, 2012.

BibTeX

Mason, Winter; Watts, Duncan J.

Collaborative learning in networks Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 109, no. 3, 2012.

BibTeX

2011

Watts, Duncan J.

Everything is Obvious*: Once You Know the Answer Book

Crown Business, 2011.

BibTeX

Wu, Shaomei; Hofman, Jake; Mason, Winter A.; Watts, Duncan J.

Who says what to whom on Twitter Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on World Wide Web, 2011.

BibTeX

Suri, Siddharth; Watts, Duncan J.

Cooperation and Contagion in Networked Public Goods Experiments Journal Article

In: PLoS One, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. e16836, 2011.

BibTeX

Bakshy, Eytan; Hofman, Jake; Mason, Winter; Watts, Duncan J.

Everyone's an influencer: Quantifying Influence on Twitter Proceedings Article

In: 4th International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, Hong Kong, 2011.

BibTeX

2010

Goel, Sharad; Mason, Winter; Watts, Duncan J.

Real and perceived attitude agreement in social networks Journal Article

In: Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, vol. 99, no. 4, pp. 611-621, 2010.

BibTeX

Choudhury, Munmun; Hofman, Jake; Mason, Winter; Watts, Duncan J.

Inferring Relevant Networks from Social Communication Data Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on World Wide Web, 2010.

BibTeX

Goel, Sharad; Reeves, Daniel; Pennock, David; Watts, Duncan J.

Prediction without markets Proceedings Article

In: 11th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce (EC'10), 2010.

BibTeX

2009

Salganik, Matthew J.; Watts, Duncan J.

The puzzling nature of success in cultural markets: Four micro-macro experiments Book Section

In: Hedstrom, Peter; Bearman, Peter S. (Ed.): Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology, pp. 315-341, Oxford University Press, 2009.

BibTeX

Dodds, Peter S.; Watts, Duncan J.

Threshold models of social influence processes Book Section

In: Hedstrom, Peter; Bearman, Peter S. (Ed.): Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology, pp. 475-497, Oxford University Press, 2009.

BibTeX

Watts, Duncan J.

Small-World Networks Book Section

In: Durlauf, S.; Blume, L. (Ed.): New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

BibTeX

Malmgren, R. Dean; Hofman, Jake M.; Amaral, Luís A. N.; Watts, Duncan J.

Modeling the dynamics of individual human communication Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, pp. 607-616, 2009.

BibTeX

Salganik, Matthew J.; Watts, Duncan J.

Web-based experiments for the study of collective social dynamics in cultural markets Journal Article

In: Topics in Cognitive Science, vol. 1, pp. 439-468, 2009.

BibTeX

Goel, Sharad; Muhamad, Roby; Watts, Duncan J.

Social Search in 'Small-World' Experiments Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on World Wide Web, pp. 701-710, 2009.

BibTeX

Kossinets, Gueorgi; Watts, Duncan J.

The Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network Journal Article

In: American Journal of Sociology, vol. 115, no. 2, pp. 405-450, 2009.

BibTeX

Mason, Winter; Watts, Duncan J.

Financial Incentives and the Performance of Crowds Proceedings Article

In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD Workshop on Human Computation, pp. 77-85, 2009.

BibTeX

2008

Lopez-Pintado, D.; Watts, D. J.

Social Influence, Binary Decisions and Collective Dynamics Journal Article

In: Rationality and Society, vol. 20, pp. 399-443, 2008.

BibTeX

Salganik, Matthew J.; Watts, Duncan J.

Leading the Herd Astray: An Experimental Study of Self-fulfilling Prophecies in an Artificial Cultural Market Journal Article

In: Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 71, pp. 338-355, 2008.

BibTeX

Kossinets, Gueorgi; Kleinberg, Jon; Watts, Duncan J.

The structure of information pathways in a social communication network Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 2008.

BibTeX

2007

Watts, Duncan J.

The Collective Dynamics of Belief Book Section

In: Nee, Victor; Swedberg, Richard (Ed.): On Capitalism, Stanford University Press, 2007.

BibTeX

Watts, D. J.; Dodds, P. S.

Networks, influence, and public opinion formation Journal Article

In: Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 441-458, 2007.

BibTeX

Hanaki, N.; Peterhansl, A.; Dodds, P. S.; Watts, D. J.

Cooperation in evolving social networks Journal Article

In: Management Science, vol. 53, no. 7, pp. 1036-1050, 2007.

BibTeX

2006

Newman, M. E. J.; Barabasi, A. L.; Watts, Duncan J. (Ed.)

The Structure and Dynamics of Complex Networks Book

Princeton University Press, 2006.

BibTeX

Salganik, M. J.; Dodds, P. S.; Watts, D. J.

Experimental study of inequality and unpredictability in an artificial cultural market Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 311, pp. 854-856, 2006.

BibTeX

Kossinets, G.; Watts, D. J.

Empirical Analysis of Evolving Social Networks Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 311, 2006.

BibTeX

2005

Watts, D. J.; Dodds, P. S.; Muhamad, R.; Medina, D.

Multiscale, recurrent epidemics in a hierarchical compartment model Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 102, no. 32, pp. 11157-11162, 2005.

BibTeX

Dodds, P. S.; Watts, D. J.

A generalized model of social and biological contagion Journal Article

In: Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 232, no. 4, pp. 587-604, 2005.

BibTeX

2004

Dodds, P. S.; Watts, D. J.

Universal behavior in a generalized model of contagion Journal Article

In: Physical Review Letters, vol. 92, no. 21, 2004.

BibTeX

Watts, Duncan J.

The 'new' science of networks Journal Article

In: Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 30, pp. 243-270, 2004.

BibTeX

2003

Watts, Duncan J.

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age Book

W. W. Norton, 2003.

BibTeX

Dodds, P. S.; Watts, D. J.; Sabel, C. F.

Information exchange and robustness in organizational networks Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, vol. 100, no. 21, pp. 12516-12521, 2003.

BibTeX

Dodds, P. S.; Muhamad, R.; Watts, D. J.

An experimental study of search in global social networks Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 301, pp. 827-829, 2003.

BibTeX

2002

Watts, D. J.; Dodds, P. S.; Newman, M. E. J.

Identity and search in social networks Journal Article

In: Science, vol. 296, pp. 1302-1305, 2002.

BibTeX

Watts, D. J.

A simple model of global cascades on random networks Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, vol. 99, pp. 5766-5771, 2002.

BibTeX

Newman, M. E. J.; Watts, D. J.; Strogatz, S. H.

Random graph models of social networks Journal Article

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, vol. 99, pp. 2566-2572, 2002.

BibTeX

2001

Newman, M. E. J.; Strogatz, S. H.; Watts, D. J.

Random graphs with arbitrary degree distributions and their applications Journal Article

In: Physical Review E, vol. 64, 2001.

BibTeX

2000

Callaway, D. S.; Newman, M. E. J.; Strogatz, S. H.; Watts, D. J.

Network robustness and fragility: Percolation on random graphs Journal Article

In: Physical Review Letters, vol. 85, pp. 5468-5471, 2000.

BibTeX

Newman, M. E. J.; Moore, C.; Watts, D. J.

Mean-field solution of the small-world network model Journal Article

In: Physical Review Letters, vol. 84, pp. 3201-3204, 2000.

BibTeX

1999

Watts, Duncan J.

Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness Book

Princeton University Press, 1999.

BibTeX

Newman, M. E. J.; Watts, D. J.

Renormalization group analysis of the small-world network model Journal Article

In: Physics Letters A, vol. 263, pp. 341-346, 1999.

BibTeX

Newman, M. E. J.; Watts, D. J.

Scaling and percolation in the small-world network model Journal Article

In: Physical Review E, vol. 60, pp. 7332-7342, 1999.

BibTeX

Watts, D. J.

Networks, dynamics and the small world phenomenon Journal Article

In: American Journal of Sociology, vol. 105, no. 2, pp. 493-527, 1999.

BibTeX

1998

Watts, D. J.; Strogatz, S. H.

Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks Journal Article

In: Nature, vol. 393, pp. 440-442, 1998.

BibTeX

Books

Books

Everything Is Obvious
Six Degrees