Were obese people influenced by people they have never met? In addition to physical health, were individuals’ emotional health affected by people they never met? Dr. Nicholas Christakis and Dr. James Fowler addressed these questions in a fascinating study about how people’s social network influenced their weight, happiness, smoking tendencies, and other aspects of their lives (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkmsjFisW_A).
Social networks influence people’s tendency to smoke. Photograph Will Lion by via Flickr Commons.
The researchers first addressed the issue of obesity by observing people’s social networks and noticed clusters of obese people and clusters of non-obese individuals. They discovered that although people may not know their friend’s friends, these secondary friends affected the people’s level of obesity. If these secondary friends became obese, then the original people were more likely to become obese, too. However, it was not recommended that someone forfeits their friendship with an obese friend. In fact, the researchers noted that people who abandoned an obese friend were more likely to become obese than those who maintained their friendship. This finding emphasized how paramount friendship was in people’s lives.
Drs. Christakis and Fowler proposed a theory called ‘Three Degrees of Influence’, (a friend or relative is one degree of separation, a friend’s friend is two degrees of separation, and a friend’s friend’s friend is three degrees of separation). They suggested how individuals up to three degrees in separation influenced other people (CALIT). In addition, there was a greater impact when people were close to their friend or relative. Neighbours and acquaintances who were not as close did not have as great an effect.
The social scientists also investigated if emotions and other behaviours are connected to social networks in a similar way. Similar to physical health, they found that a close relationship three degrees apart affected our emotions, such as happiness. In addition, people’s choice of whether to vote and who they voted for were also influenced by social networks. Drs. Christakis and Fowler coauthored ‘The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives’ and an excerpt is available at http://connectedthebook.com/pdf/excerpt.pdf.
Blog post by Jason Leung
