Weak connection: Why influencers sometimes fail to influence

Conventional wisdom holds that targeting the best-connected individuals in a social network is an effective way to nudge a wider group of people to change their behavior.

For example, public health officials launching a campaign to improve nutrition might target a community's leaders on the assumption that they wield the most influence.

The effectiveness of this approach, however, depends on the structure of the social network, a new Yale study finds. ...