Submission + - Is Happiness Catching? (nytimes.com)
chrb writes: The New York Times has an interesting article about research into modelling of real world social networks, and how tendencies to be happy, to smoke, and to become obese, are passed between nodes in a directed graph in a way that suggests such concepts are "contagious". Well connected nodes in the graph (i.e. people with more friends) are more likely to be happier than less connected nodes, even when the edges represent more distant friendships. Individuals quitting smoking, or becoming obese, influence not only their immediately connected friends, but also friends of friends, with the effect sometimes skipping the intermediary node. The contagion effect is most noticable when a tendency is passed from one person to another of the same sex — friends of the opposite sex, including spouses, are not as influential.