Friendship as a Health Factor

Article Link: http://jhfowler.ucsd.edu/science_friendship_as_a_health_factor.pdf

Authors: Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler
In a string of hot articles, two social scientists report that obesity, smoking, and other facets of health “spread” in networks. As the two friends expand their theory, doubters sharpen their questions...

Social networks have been studied for decades, but only recently have researchers applied them to health-related questions.

The two authors have an upcoming book titled Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives...if you're interested!

The story is very cool, and a must read!

On a related note, there is an interesting interview with Jennifer Couzin on how behaviors (like obesity, smoking, and others) "spread" in social networks!

You can listen to the interview here: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/323/5913/454/DC1

monkey see, monkey do....

or monkey pressured, monkey might give in...whether it be an information cascade sort of pressure or pressure to conform like we see in network exchange theory.

i think it's as simple as that.