Sociology 2180A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Homophily
24 Apr 2018
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Catching obesity from friends may not be so easy. Researchers published studies said that the best way to curve negative behaviours is by focusing on small groups of people who would influence their networks. In response to criticism, they say that they understand the limitations, but maintain their argument. The first paper involved 32 years of medical records that involved body weight and smoking habits done by dr. fowler and dr. christakis. They asked people to name someone who would know how to reach them at the time of the exam. Using this, they found that friends, and friends of friends levels of obesity were similar, but neighbours weren"t. The explanations were: homophily the tendency to choose friends like oneself. People are affected in the same ways by environments that they share w/ friends. Contagion- one"s idea of an acceptable weight or portion size changes when they see how big his friends are and how much they eat.
