Every year, the MacArthur Foundation releases a list of fellows recognized for “originality and dedication” in their respective fields. 2014’s list honors social psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, whose work on implicit biases showed up on TROT last week. Known informally as the “genius grant,” the MacArthur fellowship offers funds for a wide range of scholars, artists, and entrepreneurs to pursue new directions in their work. But what exactly is a genius? How do we decide who has that special something? Social science suggests we should not only look at geniuses themselves, but also at how socialization and networks among people craft innovation.

Biographical studies show that genius and other talents are not born, but rather cultivated through an extraordinary amount of practice, habit-forming, and parenting.

• Joyce Tang. 2005. “Manufacturing Great Scientists.” Sociological Inquiry 75(1):129-150
• Michael J. A. Howe. 2001 Genius Explained. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Daniel F. Chambliss. 1989. “The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and Olympic Swimmers.” Sociological Theory 7(1):70-86.

Institutions and social networks also play a big role. “Genius” level work in the arts and sciences must be recognized by peers and labeled as such.

• Gabriel Rossman, Nicole Esparza, and Phillip Bonacich. 2010. “I’d Like to Thank the Academy, Team Spillovers, and Network Centrality.” American Sociological Review. 75(1) 31-51.
• Gary Alan Fine. 2004. Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Howard S. Becker. 1982. Art Worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Robert K. Merton. 1965. On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript. Chicago: University of Chicago Press