Human behavior is 93 percent predictable, a group of leading Northeastern University network scientists recently found.

Distinguished Professor of Physics Albert-László Barabási and his team studied the mobility patterns of anonymous cell-phone users

“Spontaneous individuals are largely absent from the population. Despite the significant differences in travel patterns, we found that most people are equally predictable,”

“The predictability represents the probability we can foresee an individual's future whereabouts in the next hour based on his or her previous trajectory.”

the 93 percent predictability remains true both for those who travel far distances on a regular basis and for those who typically stay close to home.

the regularity and predictability of individual movement did not differ significantly across demographic categories, including age, gender, language groups, population density, and urban versus rural locations.

“While most individuals travel only short distances and a few regularly move over hundreds of miles, they all follow a simple pattern regardless of time and distance, and they have a strong tendency to return to locations they visited before,”