Other people directly affect your behaviour – and norms!
In my last post, I talked about a study that showed obesity to be socially contagious. The study also identifies a larger effect among people of the same sex, the researchers believe that people affect not only each other's behaviours but also, more subtly, their norms.
"What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size. People come to think that it is okay to be bigger since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads," said Christakis.
"This is about people's ideas about their bodies and their health," Fowler said. "Consciously or unconsciously, people look to others when they are deciding how much to eat, how much to exercise and how much weight is too much."
"Social effects, I think, are much stronger than people before realized. There's been an intensive effort to find genes that are responsible for obesity and physical processes that are responsible for obesity and what our paper suggests is that you really should spend time looking at the social side of life as well," said Fowler.
The policy implications of the study, the researchers say, are profound. The social-network effects extend three degrees of separation -- to your friends' friends' friends -- so any public-health intervention aimed at reducing obesity should consider this in its cost-benefit analysis.
"When we help one person lose weight, we're not just helping one person, we're helping many," Fowler said. "And that needs to be taken into account by policy analysts and also by politicians who are trying to decide what the best measures are for making society healthier."
"It's important to remember," Fowler said, "that we've not only shown that obesity is contagious but that thinness is contagious as well."
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