Ths social spread of behavior.

To follow up last week's post on the social nature of behavior change, there were another pair of great articles just published on Christakis' and Fowler's social contagion analysis of the Farmingham Heart Study data (one from Wired here, the other from the NY Times Magazine is here).  Their research first hit the mainstream press a couple years ago when they reported on the social spread of obesity.  The pair has gone on to explore their hypothesis further and publish their first general audience book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. Their research demonstrates the power of social networks to influence individual behavior.  Further, it forces us to drastically recast our understanding of public health when we think of people as an interconnected network rather than a mass of autonomous individuals.

"In essence, Christakis and Fowler’s work suggests a new way to think about public health. If they’re right, public-health initiatives that merely address the affected individuals are doomed to failure. To really grapple with bad behaviors that spread, you have to simultaneously focus on individuals who are so distant they don’t even realize they’re affecting one another."

Of course, since their data is from a Boston suburb, the health issues they've examined are decidedly of the developed world.  Obesity, smoking, happiness.  But their hypothesis could have dramatic effects on the developing world as well.  For starters, community is a much stronger condition of daily life in the developing world.  In general, social ties are stronger and networks are larger in these regions.  Africa may be disadvantaged in many ways, but when it comes to social capital few communities are suffering from Putnam's Bowling Alone syndrome. 

"Christakis and Fowler postulate that our ability to affect people three degrees away from us may have evolutionary roots — and so may the very shape of human social networks. Tribal groups that were tightly connected were likely more able to pass along positive behaviors than those that weren’t."

The breadth and depth of social connections in the developing world could significantly support strategies aimed at behavior change.  When dealing with poorly educated populations a more nuanced understanding of cultural values and social ties is critical.  And if their hypothesis - that good (or bad) behaviors pass from friend to friend like contagious viruses - proves out to be true, social marketing strategists will need to rethink both their campaign plans and M&E methods.  But working from a more accurate model of behavior could help campaigns addressing issues ranging from family planning to safe water to malaria prevention and more, become far more efficient and effective.  And as mentioned last week, it appears that some already are.  It may not be apparent on the face of it, but the use of cows to broadcast behavior change in West Pokot, Kenya does indeed have a lot in common with a Facebook application to encourage smoking-cessation in America.

"Nathan Cobb, a smoking-cessation expert and researcher at the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies, is designing an application that Facebook users can install on their pages when they’re trying to quit smoking. The application will publicly display how long they’ve gone without cigarettes, whether they are using a nicotine patch and how much money they have saved by not smoking. The idea, Cobb says, is to take your invisible, internal battle to quit smoking and make it visible so that it can influence your friends (and friends of friends) who are still puffing away."

In other words, the cows of West Pokot and a smoking-cessation Facebook application both make an otherwise hidden behavior visible and thereby facilitate the social spread of behavior change.

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