Social networks influence health behaviors: study (w/ Video)
Thursday, September 2, 2010 - 13:42
in Mathematics & Economics
Scientists have long thought that social networks, which features many distant connections, or "long ties," produces large-scale changes most quickly. But in a new study, Damon Centola, an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has reached a different conclusion: Individuals are more likely to acquire new health practices while living in networks with dense clusters of connections - that is, when in close contact with people they already know well.