by Zoë Pollock
The media swooned recently (yup, us too) for social contagion studies that showed how obesity and divorce can spread through social circles. Scientists have raised doubts about the methods used, and most agree that the original findings were fatally flawed. Dave Johns corrects the record:
The very idea of contagion and connectedness seems to embody the spirit of today, from the upswell of support for a young, black Chicago politician to the Facebook-driven revolutions of the Middle East. But just because contagion is important in one context doesn't mean something like obesity spreads like a virus—much less one that can infect someone as remote from you as your son's best friend's mother. … Yes, we influence each other all the time, in how we talk and how we dress and what kinds of screwball videos we watch on the Internet. But careful studies of our social networks reveal what may be a more powerful and pervasive effect: We tend to form ties with the people who are most like us to begin with.
Seth Masket chips in his two cents.
The Dish 