Research BriefingPublished: 18 March 2026Nature Human Behaviour (2026)Cite this articleSubjectsComplex networksInterdisciplinary studiesBehavioural and complexity sciences have largely proceeded separately in studying social change. By reinterpreting social contagion dynamics through discrete-choice modelling, we demonstrated how thresholds for individual change can be estimated from choice data, and theoretically examined how they can improve interventions for social change.This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institutionAccess optionsAccess Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journalsGet Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription27,99 € / 30 dayscancel any timeLearn moreSubscribe to this journalReceive 12 digital issues and online access to articles118,99 € per yearonly 9,92 € per issueLearn moreBuy this articlePurchase on SpringerLinkInstant access to the full article PDF.39,95 €Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkoutFig. 1: Relative performance of social change interventions.ReferencesConstantino, S. M. et al. Scaling up change: a critical review and practical guide to harnessing social norms for climate action. Psychol. Sci. Publ. Int. 23, 50–97 (2022). This review examines how individual and social barriers might prevent large-scale environmental action even when the behaviours that mitigate emissions are well known, as well as how to design interventions that harness social norms to overcome the identified barriers.Article Google Scholar Centola, D. & Macy, M. Complex contagions and the weakness of long ties. Am. J. Sociol. 113, 702–734 (2007). This paper introduced the conceptual distinction between simple and complex social contagion: namely, the idea that social reinforcement effects are expected for adoptions in presence of risk or uncertainty.Article Google Scholar Valente, T. W. Social network thresholds in the diffusion of innovations. Soc. Networks 18, 69–89 (1996). This paper introduced the idea that low-threshold nodes might accelerate the adoption of new behaviours if targeted early.Article Google Scholar Miller, K. M., Hofstetter, R., Krohmer, H. & Zhang, Z. J. How should consumers’ willingness to pay be measured? An empirical comparison of state-of-the-art approaches. J. Market. Res. 48, 172–184 (2011). This paper empirically compares state-of-the-art behavioural models and experiments aimed at estimating customers’ price thresholds for purchasing alternative products, and provides an overview of the marketing science approach we adapted to model and estimate individual adoption thresholds.Article Google Scholar Guilbeault, D. & Centola, D. Topological measures for identifying and predicting the spread of complex contagions. Nat. Commun. 12, 4430 (2021). This paper proposed complex centrality to identify optimal seeds for complex contagions, which we were able to calibrate with empirically estimated individual thresholds.Article PubMed PubMed Central CAS Google Scholar Download referencesAdditional informationPublisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.This is a summary of: Tănase, R. et al. Integrating behavioural experimental findings into dynamical models to inform social change interventions. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-026-02417-4 (2026).Rights and permissionsReprints and permissionsAbout this article