Social Networks Change Behavior

A Washington Post story covers a new study by Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler at the University of California at San Diego published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine tracking the pattern of smoking - actually quitting smoking - through a social network. They are not refering to an online social network but rather to the more common offline network we all participate in - in this case one whose core focal point is geographic.

You can get the WaPo article here in its entirety.

Here are the interesting parts:

• Over the course of 30 years, the number of smokers in the network dropped from 45% to 21%
• Closer relationships (family, co-workers in small companies, etc..) had more influence and impact
• Yet a single person's quitting seemed to have an effect at least through 3 degrees of separation

There are two assumptions the article reports that I question:

1. The drop in smoking was probably the effect of a shift in 'social norms.'
No doubt. And 'social norms' have become a common lever in social marketing circles (behavior change). We hear it a lot from clients in the government trying to affect change. It has always been around but seems to have risen to the surface of many campaigns via the messaging - e.g. "most people form a driving contract with their teenagers...."

Think about smoking. I quit early in my twenties. When someone quits in your 'circle' you talk about it. It does not remain a secret. People ask what's up, how are you doing with it, how long has it been. The 'quitter' explains their irritability, the different programs they are trying, how long it's been. There is tons of conversation and word of mouth. The researchers previous study focused on obesity. While impolite to mention a ballooning weight, it is also visually obvious. Talking about it, if even in more hushed tones, is inevitable.

I would love to know how many conversations happened between network 'members' about smoking. What was the role of word of mouth?

2. The remaining smokers ended up on the fringes of society. The illustration "proves" this point. I have no doubt that the role of smokers in society has dramatically changed in 30 years. In fact in a recent post, I reported someone's observation that they had become the last true counterculture. They cluster outside office buildings in the scorching heat or bone-chilling cold in small groups to pound back a cigarette.

But are they really the outcasts the article and study suggest? What if you layer in all of the other social networks they may belong to: movie lovers, scifi enthusiasts, wine afficianados, Harley owners? The geographicly rooted social network is one dimension of a "n" dimension of affinity groups we all belong to formally or informally. While the smokers may become isolated in the original network, they may lead vibrant, connected lives across other social networks to which they 'belong.'

Using Social Networks for Social Marketing

The implications of the study on social marketers' use of social media and social networks is great. Can behavior change experts embrace the use of new digital networks to accelerate the spread of social norms and word of mouth? They will need to let go of some control - a lot of control - to do so but we may just find a way to produce behavior change in something under thirty years.

The report confirms the usefulness of engaging influential groups within a network:

"Moreover, medical and public health interventions to encourage people to quit smoking might be more cost-effective than initially supposed, since health improvements in one person might spread to others. Finally, the isolation of smokers within social networks suggests that blanket policy approaches (e.g., advertising and taxation) may be usefully supplemented by interventions targeting small groups."

Roll Up Your Sleeves

If you are interested in how social marketers will begin to use social media (don't get them confused), you shoudl check out Nedra Weinrich, is in town on June 2th to hold her 2.5 day Social Marketing University. This is more than Social Marketing 101. Nedra is a leader in defining how to harness digital innovations and social media for behavior change (social marketing). You can sign up for the regular course Next Generation Social Marketing Seminar on June 4th.

Her blog is Spare Change

Comments

[Michael Netzley]

John, this is a very sharp and thoughtful post. Thanks for bringing the article to our attention and unpacking some of the assumptions. I shall go back and read the original.

I am just thinking about the frames used. I notice the continued use of hierarchy. Why does standing outside to smoke have to be "counter" culture? Perhaps this is just another network. As we have heard elsewhere, in the digital world things need not be placed in hierarchies on a shelf...links alone are enough. I suspect this is what you are pointing out to us?

Thanks again and I hope all is well. The wiki is updated, so I will write soon.

[Matt Searles]

You know.. Carl Jung did some stuff on this nearly 100 years ago.. His association tests would demonstrate the presence of "association complexes" that would operate in a way that was independent of self.. He also showed how certain kinds of complexes could move through groups.. particularly with family.. say with alcoholism and certain kinds of abuses / behavior patterns of various sorts.

There's a way where if your mom was married to an alcoholic, and your a women.. you're more like to turn your spouse into an alcoholic, even if he wasn't one to begin with...

The underlying dynamics are complex.. in essence.. well you can look at Maslow hierarchy.. you could say that beneath consciousness is a kind of hierarchical ordering of needs.. which consciousness it's self is driven by.. this hierarchy drives, you could say, your personal values.. much like the relationship of supply and demand. When people get together in groups this becomes collectivized.. driving the consciousness of the group..

So, if we are talking about.. well lets say addiction, what's it's value? If you talk to an addiction specialist you'll learn that the addiction is a way of managing pain. Addiction is a short term solution.. so what you then need is a solution that has more value then the addiction for what the addiction serves..

I think it's also worth noting that you have what Nietzsche calls the dyonesian and appolonian instincts.. the dyonesian tends to be more about self destruction / disintegration.. where as the appolonian tends to be more civilizing, to put it a certain way. The thing is they both have a value in collective evolution.. We inherit a set of values which the appolonian tends to conserve.. the trouble is the question of the value of the value.. another words, what's the relationship of the value to our underlying needs.. the dyonesian instinct is one that leads to a more organic evolution that creates a situation where the underlying needs have more impact on the evolution..

If you look at the shifts in American values in the 60s and 70s, with the hippies and what not, you can see this in action.

So, is smoking as self destructive ties into how you're relating to all this..

So what I'm saying is that there are deeper forces at play in how social networks relate to behavior.. even if I'm only speaking to a small part of these forces..

Joseph Campbell used to say that if you want to save the world, the best thing you can do is save your self.. I think this ties in rather nicely

And one last comment is that HIndu metaphysics deals nicely with these issues to.. take a like at Indra's Net.. the notion of us all being the dream characters in one anothers dreams.

Finally.. complexes have a relationship to archtypes.. so that the angels and demons and what not.. found in mythology, are representations of these complexes..

[Nedra]

Great post, John, and thanks so much for the SMU plug! I hope we'll have a chance to meet up next time I'm in town.

[Nedra]

Great post, John, and thanks so much for the SMU plug! I hope we'll have a chance to meet up next time I'm in town.

[John Bell]

@Michael - I agree that the impulse to demostrate hiererchies is probably some left-over compulsion. The smoker as counter-culture is probably an accurate statement here in the US - they have become a minority, they are "shunned" in public places and forced to find their own "places." The idea of counter culture mans to me a minority that rebels against the norm. Semms to fit to me.

[Lorelei F]

There is also a social network called Nicotine Anonymous that has been very useful to smokers who are quitting. In addiction, it is hard to say which is more important to address- the body, mind, or spirit- as all are important. Certainly a network of friends and like-minded individuals makes a big difference.