Collective dynamics behind success

Manuel S. Mariani (), Federico Battiston, Emőke-Ágnes Horvát, Giacomo Livan, Federico Musciotto and Dashun Wang
Additional contact information
Manuel S. Mariani: University of Zurich
Federico Battiston: Central European University
Emőke-Ágnes Horvát: Northwestern University
Giacomo Livan: Università degli Studi di Pavia
Federico Musciotto: University of Palermo
Dashun Wang: Northwestern University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Understanding the collective dynamics behind the success of ideas, products, behaviors, and social actors is critical for decision-making across diverse contexts, including hiring, funding, career choices, and the design of interventions for social change. Methodological advances and the increasing availability of big data now allow for a broader and deeper understanding of the key facets of success. Recent studies unveil regularities beneath the collective dynamics of success, pinpoint underlying mechanisms, and even enable predictions of success across diverse domains, including science, technology, business, and the arts. However, this research also uncovers troubling biases that challenge meritocratic views of success. This review synthesizes the growing, cross-disciplinary literature on the collective dynamics behind success and calls for further research on cultural influences, the origins of inequalities, the role of algorithms in perpetuating them, and experimental methods to further probe causal mechanisms behind success. Ultimately, these efforts may help to better align success with desired societal values.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54612-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-54612-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54612-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().