#  Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society 

 



    ![Nicholas Christakis has short gray hair and glasses. He is gesturing away from himself as he stands in front of a dark screen showing a graph.](/sites/g/files/omnuum11411/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2026-10/Nicholas-8.jpg?itok=uL7u_lFl) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **November 12, 2026** 

 02:00PM - 04:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Waterhouse Room, Gordon Hall**  

 [25 Shattuck Street  
Boston, MA 02115  
United States



 ](<https://www.google.com/maps?q=US MA Boston 02115 25 Shattuck Street>) 



 

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**“Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society" with Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH**  
Portals to Excellence and Impact event

Scientists and citizens often focus on the dark side of humans’ biological heritage—on our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, mendacity, and self-interest. But natural selection has also given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and teaching. Beneath all our inventions—our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations—we carry with us innate proclivities to make such a good society. Indeed, our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviors, but also the ways in which we make societies, therefore resulting in societies that are surprisingly similar worldwide. Using many, wide-ranging examples—including diverse historical and contemporary cultures, communities formed in the wake of shipwrecks, commune dwellers seeking utopia, village settings throughout the world, online groups of people and artificially intelligent bots, and even the tender and complex social arrangements of elephants and dolphins that so resemble our own— Dr. Christakis will show that, despite a human history replete with violence, we cannot escape our social blueprint for goodness. In a world of increasing political and economic polarization, it’s tempting to ignore the positive role of our evolutionary past. But he will show how and why evolution has placed us on a humane path—and how we are united by our common humanity.

**About the speaker**:

Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. His work is in the fields of network science and biosocial science. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006; the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017; and the National Academy of Sciences in 2024.

   ![Decorative](/sites/g/files/omnuum11411/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/2026-10/Screenshot%202026-10-08%20at%2012.39.17%E2%80%AFPM.png?itok=UP1fZmah) 

 



 

 

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 Attachments- [  picture\_as\_pdf  111226\_PortalsChristakis.pdf ](/sites/g/files/omnuum11411/files/2026-10/111226_PortalsChristakis.pdf)
 
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