Clive Thompson: People weren't just getting fatter randomly. Good behaviors -- like quitting smoking or staying slender or being happy -- pass from friend to friend almost as if they were contagious viruses. And the same is true of bad behaviors -- clusters of friends appear to "infect" each other with obesity, unhappiness and smoking. People may be able to pass along a social signal without themselves acting on it.
Nicholas A. Christakis & James Fowler: Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her.
Christakis: It turns out that all kinds of things, many of them quite unexpected, can flow through social networks.
Christakis & Fowler: Each additional happy friend increases a person's probability of being happy by about 9%.
Sandy Pentland: You couldn't prove what they say, but I happen to believe it. Subtle patterns in how we interact with other people reveal our attitudes toward them.
Nora Johnson: In our unending search for panaceas, we believe that happiness and "success" -- which, loosely translated, means money -- are the things to strive for. People are constantly surprised that, even though they have acquired material things, discontent still gnaws.
Pico Iyer: It seems that happiness, like peace or passion, comes most freely when it isn't pursued.
Thompson: Your place in the network affects your happiness, but your happiness doesn't affect your place in the network.
Is Happiness Catching? | 
