Over the past decade there has been a growing public fascination with the complex connectedness of modern society. This connectedness is found in many incarnations: in the rapid growth of the Internet, in the ease with which global communication takes place, and in the ability of news and information as well as epidemics and financial crises to spread with surprising speed and intensity. These are phenomena that involve networks, incentives, and the aggregate behavior of groups of people; they are based on the links that connect us and the ways in which our decisions can have subtle consequences for others. This introductory undergraduate textbook takes an interdisciplinary look at economics, sociology, computing and information science, and applied mathematics to understand networks and behavior. It describes the emerging field of study that is growing at the interface of these areas, addressing fundamental questions about how the social, economic, and technological worlds are connected.

在过去的十年里，公众对现代社会复杂的连接性越来越着迷。这种关联性有很多表现形式：在互联网的快速增长中，在全球通信的便捷中，在新闻和信息以及流行病和金融危机以惊人的速度和强度传播的能力中。这些现象涉及到网络、激励和人群的总体行为；它们基于连接我们的纽带以及我们的决定对他人产生微妙影响的方式。这本介绍性的本科生教科书从经济学、社会学、计算和信息科学以及应用数学等跨学科的角度来理解网络和行为。它描述了在这些领域的界面上正在增长的新兴研究领域，解决关于社会、经济和技术世界是如何连接的基本问题。