Collective dynamics behind success
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.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2412.17472,
title = {Collective dynamics behind success},
author = {Manuel S. Mariani and Federico Battiston and Emőke-Ágnes Horvát and Giacomo Livan and Federico Musciotto and Dashun Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.17472},
year = {2024}
}