Influence in Traditional Social Networks

While Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites continue to receive a lot of attention, the real influence may lie within traditional social networks [washington post]:

When researchers analyzed the patterns of those who managed to quit smoking over the 32-year period, they found that the decision appeared to be highly influenced by whether someone close to them stopped. A person whose spouse quit was 67 percent more likely to kick the habit. If a friend gave it up, a person was 36 percent more likely to do so. If a sibling quit, the chances increased by 25 percent.

A co-worker had an influence — 34 percent — only if the smoker worked at a small firm. The effects were stronger among the more educated and among those who were casual or moderate smokers. Neighbors did not appear to influence each other, but friends did even if they lived far away.

“You appear to have to have a close relationship with the person for it to be influential,” Fowler said.

This entry was posted on May 26, 2008 at 7:57 pm and is filed under collective intelligence, social networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.