Mariani Manuel S, Battiston Federico, Horvát Emőke-Ágnes, Livan Giacomo, Musciotto Federico, Wang Dashun
URPP Social Networks, University of Zurich, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Network and Data Science, Central European University, Vienna, Austria.
Nat Commun. 2024 Dec 19;15(1):10701. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54612-4.
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.
理解思想、产品、行为和社会行为者成功背后的集体动态，对于包括招聘、资金投入、职业选择以及社会变革干预措施设计等不同背景下的决策至关重要。方法学的进步以及大数据可用性的不断提高，现在使人们能够更广泛、更深入地理解成功的关键方面。最近的研究揭示了成功集体动态背后的规律，确定了潜在机制，甚至能够预测包括科学、技术、商业和艺术在内的不同领域的成功。然而，这项研究也揭示了令人不安的偏见，这些偏见挑战了成功的精英主义观点。本综述综合了关于成功背后集体动态的不断增长的跨学科文献，并呼吁进一步研究文化影响、不平等的根源、算法在使不平等永久化中的作用，以及进一步探究成功背后因果机制的实验方法。最终，这些努力可能有助于使成功与期望的社会价值观更好地保持一致。
