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Complex networks: Network healing after loss

Research now shows that human social networks surrounding a person who unexpectedly dies recover from the loss through strengthening of the relationships between friends and acquaintances of the deceased individual. The study demonstrates how individuals change their interaction patterns to support one another during a time of grief.

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Correspondence to Robert Bond.

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Robert Bond worked with the same PhD advisor, James Fowler, as Will Hobbs at the University of California, San Diego.

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Bond, R. Complex networks: Network healing after loss. Nat Hum Behav 1, 0087 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0087

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