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December 2nd, 2011
06:00 PM ET
Similar friends may spread healthy behaviorsWho you know influences how you behave, a growing body of research is showing. Networks of people who know each other can spread the good (happiness) and the bad (obesity, STDs and loneliness). But it's not just any social network that propagates behaviors and diseases. New research published in the journal Science suggests that having social network contacts of similar gender, weight and body-mass index could help people pick up on healthy behaviors. The study did not conclude which of these factors is most important, but that will be the subject of follow-up work, says Damon Centola, study author who is a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It also does not prove that the network caused behavior adoption, but puts forth questions for further study. Researchers recruited 710 participants from online fitness programs. They were all randomly assigned to work with volunteers in social networking communities. However, some participants were assigned to so-called "clustered communities," where they were connected to 6 heath buddies, who shared similar body mass index, gender and age. Other trial participants were assigned to "non-clustered communities," which meant they were connected randomly with participants, with whom they didn't necessarily share any traits. Each participant got a personalized "health dashboard" showing his or her own health behaviors and those adopted by health buddies. The study set up the situation where participants had to decide whether to adopt (or agree to use) an online diet diary. A notification from the dashboard would tell participants if their health buddies had adopted the behavior. In each network, participants received a notification that a person in their network with above-average fitness, high exercise minutes and low BMI had chosen to use the diary. In reality, researchers sent out that notification to see how the behavior would spread. Researchers found that three times more participants in clustered social networks adopted healthy behaviors from the diary than their counterparts in the unstructured networks did. Relative to their study population sizes, a greater percentage of obese participants chose to adopt the diet diary in the clustered networks compared to non-obese volunteers. And not a single obese participant in the unstructured networks signed up for the diary. Generally speaking, the clustered networks greatly increased the likelihood of adopting the diary, especially among the less physically fit volunteers, according to the study. How does this happen? Researchers looked at the data again in terms of who got exposed to the diary via notifications from others in the group. Once an obese person adopted the behavior, clustered networks allowed other obese individuals greater exposure. Scientists conclude that being in these similar clusters gave obese people more access to the behavior and increased their chance of adopting it. "Our findings suggest that obese individuals may be more dependent than healthier individuals on the compositions of their social networks for making decisions about adopting health behaviors," Centola wrote in the study. It remains an open question as to why this was the case among obese individuals, Centola told CNN. "It was a way of clearly identifying how one feature of social structure could affect behavior," he said. "In terms of more substantive implications, there is more work to do." This line of research suggests that policy makers might benefit from designing online social networks, and arranging the connections between people to reach certain goals, Marco J. van der Leij wrote in an accompanying Perspective article in Science.
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.
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What are these "healthy behaviors" of which you speak?
My overweight friend says he doesn't feel comfortable going to the ice cream shop with me. He has no problem doing this with another overweight friend.
Pic would be better if they were naked.
Of course you don't know their ages do you? But that doesn't matter, you're jacking off in your mom's basement.
STOP IT BERT!
Don't pressure the boy, Margaret!!!
So we're supposed to select our friends based on body-mass index... Nice criterion. They can be jerks, cheat, steal, rape, murder, no matter, as long as they're not overweight. Now I've seen it all.
Totally agree with you!! I've met a group of people(all friends) – all same size, but their behaviors are questionable. Rude, mean, no personalities... You might say "birds of a feather flock together."
The brunette is cute. Just saying.
Yep. Those 2 friends can come play at my house any time they want.
Let's talk about the science – how are their findings anything other than classic conditioning? these weight loss groups all saw duplicate messages of an original notification due to being interconnected (5 people email the same story to you, makes it seem more powerful). Local phenomenon. Why are we surprised to be more easily conditioned by those we resemble (physically here, but can extend to mentally & spiritually)? In this case it was positive influence, but it can easily be negative – environment selects.
Bob is totally right. I didn't even read this story. Both girls are hotties but the brunette is a breezy!
I do believe after this helpful workout they'll to shower off.
These comments miss the point. The key finding is that obese people respond more strongly to being part of a social network. I'm a thin person who exercises and eats right(it's easy. I like in NYC) twice I've dated men who struggle with their weight. When we're dating, they get healthy, lose weight. When we're not, they go right back up. People who over eat are like people who struggle with alcohol; it's complicated and compulsive. Having someone close to them with good behavior seems to be an enormous help.
drunks hang with drunks
Reality TV can make it seem very difficult by over-dramatizing the time and energy needed to make a saving for you and your family, i always use websites like "Get Official Samples" to find free products and coupons
Hot Hot Hot
Let's hope our weight stay healthy boy those genes like my body
i am too fat and drink a tine in a week. How can i be a slim& thin boy.
The oil leak is stopped for now as the cap on the well is wkiorng. The two relief wells will soon be in operation and when they are they will insert the mud and cement that will permanently seal the leaking well and then the relief wells will be used to pump oil to ships that will store it and transfer it to land based processors. The relief wells will reduce the pressure on the leaking well. There is still the possibility the relief wells may not be able to push the mud and cement into the leaking well and that would create a whole new problem for BP.
Interesting article – I enjoyed reading!