[p2p-research] Fwd: You Act Like Your Friends - Summation homophily

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Auren Hoffman Summation <auren at summation.net>
Date: Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 2:29 AM
Subject: You Act Like Your Friends - Summation homophily
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com


    Dear Michel,

Here is my most recent blog about how we are all influenced by our friends
and the science of homophily ... thought you would enjoy ...
        You Think For Yourself but You Act Like Your Friends
It is important to understand how homophily changes the way we think

Birds of a feather tend to shop together.  That we know.  They also tend to
talk together and walk together; and who their friends are affects more than
just what type of jeans they buy.  Their friends have the capacity to affect
their tastes, activities, and their lives overall.  Sociologists call this
phenomenon of being affected by one's friends "homophily" - the tendency to
associate with people similar to you and the people you associate with tend
to act like you over time (and vice-versa).

Humans naturally conform to social influence - to their surroundings,
environment, strangers, peers, friends, and the like.  People tend to
socially conform or mimic their friends' behaviors, attitudes, etc.  Besides
the need for information, it is understood that people conform so that they
will be liked and accepted by other people.

We tend to associate ourselves with those who are similar to us in
interests, attitudes, values, background, and personality.  The old saying
that "opposites attract" doesn't hold much weight; research evidence by
Miller McPherson shows that it is similarity that draws people together
(imagine starting with another male age 50 from Changwat Chiang Mai, 02, TH
on social networks like Flickr/LinkedIn/Multiply/Plaxo/Facebook you).

The Effect Your Friends Have Over You

Your peers are very important.  Judith Rich Harris's groundbreaking book, The
Nurture Assumption <http://home.att.net/%7Exchar/tna/>, suggests that peers
have a much greater influence on child development than parents or
teachers.  An immigrant 4-year-old boy from Poland (or China) who just moved
to St. Louis is more likely to speak perfect English and love baseball
within a year because he wants to fit in with the other kids.  He might
still like traditional Polish food, but he'll also quickly love hamburgers
and pizza.

The social psychology phenomenon of "mirroring" - people that are your
friends or people that like you in general, tend to physically mimic or
mirror your behavior, vernacular, movements, etc. - is example of the type
of subconscious influence your friends have over you.  As a social
experiment, try incorporating a new word or phrase into your lexicon and
notice how your friends will slowly adopt and use this word or phrase.  Or
try crossing your arms during a conversation with one of your friends and
see if they mimic that behavior.

On a gender basis, women are slightly more prone to be influenced by their
female friends than men are by their male friends.  In her research Sex
Differences in Social Behavior<http://books.google.com/books?id=28TxI8EJE_gC>,
Alice Eagly hypothesizes that this stems from the social roles men and women
are taught in our society.

How Your Friends Affect Your ...
- Health

Nick Christakis and James Fowler published a study last year in the New
England Journal of
Medicine<http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/370>which
suggests that your friends greatly affect your health.   According to
the study:

A person's chances of becoming obese increased by 57% if he or she had a
friend who became obese in a given interval. Among pairs of adult siblings,
if one sibling became obese, the chance that the other would become obese
increased by 40%. If one spouse became obese, the likelihood that the other
spouse would become obese increased by 37%. These effects were not seen
among neighbors in the immediate geographic location.

If your friend gets heavier, it becomes more socially acceptable to gain
weight.  And you start to get a different perspective on what is thin or
fat.  And because you are friends with this individual that gets heavier,
you may likely partake in activities with this friend that are unhealthy,
thus increasing your chances that you too will gain weight.  Of course, if
your friends start to eat healthy, it can be a motivating factor to eat less
chocolate cake too.

- Music Preferences

Birds of feather even sing together.  Noah Mark, Assistant Professor at UNC
Charlotte, wrote a paper in 1998 that suggests that our music preferences
are highly influenced by who we hang out with.  This makes complete sense.
We are limited in our time and capacity to try everything.  So we tend to
try out and learn about things that our friends are doing, acting as a
filter to all the noise that permeates our ear drums.  I suspect this is
also true with the type of sports you play, art you like, food you
appreciate, etc. - all your habits, likes, and dislikes are massively
influenced by your friends' habits.

- Mood

And not surprisingly, much of your mood and overall disposition can be
heavily influenced by your friends and the type of people around you.  Happy
friends will make you happier.  Sad friends will make you more depressed.
Even thoughts of suicide can be contagious.  Essentially, mood is virus that
is highly contagious.  Likewise, when someone out of the blue smiles at you,
you usually can't help but smile back.  Humans are susceptible of being
influenced and we're reciprocal beings at the core.

- Political Stance

Political leanings is very closely linked to homophily.  If you live in an
area with more than 65% party registration, you're probably getting
massively influenced by your neighbors.


Using the Understanding of Homophily for Good Use

Homophily can be actively used to positively impact your life.  Christakis
and Fowler did another study where they found quitting smoking is
contagious<http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/smoking-addictive-quitting-contagious>and
targeted interventions are most successful when done within a group.
It's analogous to going for a run with a friend and pushing yourself harder
and longer than if you were to just run by yourself.  Having many people
around you can reinforce positive things like community service or negative
things like UFO cults.

If you are always trying to hack your life, the best thing you can do is
systematically eliminate unhappy people from your encounters.  Even a
reduction of 10% unhappy people will likely have dramatic affects on your
mood and disposition.  Good-bye complainers, hello smilers.

The best way to deal with homophily is to understand how you are impacted by
it and to hack your life and make adjustments accordingly.  To inoculate
yourself politically, for instance, start considering the "other side" of
the political isle.  If you are in San Francisco (84% Democratic), you might
want to read the Wall Street Journal editorials every day.  Similarly, if
you are in the back countries of Alabama (70% Republican) you should read
the editorials of the New York Times every day.  Don't let yourself be
blindly led by those you know.

So the next time you go shopping, be sure to bring along that frugal friend
of yours to help curtail your spending spree - which is definitely not
recommended in this economy.


(special thanks to Vivek Sodera for his edits and research)



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