We are hugely social animals and spend much of our time around others. Our nine to five jobs, our family, choice of friends and our choice of spouse mean that we spend a lot of time in the company of the same people day in and day out. It is almost unavoidable not to be surrounded by others. But why? Aside from the way the modern world is set up, there is also some strength in an evolutionary approach that would suggest we are social because it has served us well in the past. Avoiding sabre tooth tigers, hunting and raising young are probably a little easier with social support. This blog will discuss a side effect of being surrounded by the same people everyday. The side effect is almost Hollywood in its nature and implies that to some extent, we might be able to ‘catch’ depression or obesity from those around us. An infamous study of health and well being is known as the Framington Heart Study and the set up of this piece of research allowed the investigators to track the mental and physical health of extremely large numbers of individuals over 20-30+ year time frames. It is a gold mine for evaluating and assessing how behaviour and people change over time. Furthermore, researchers have access to similar information for spouses, friends and neighbours. Therefore, using longitudinal statistical methods it is possible to examine some quite interesting research questions.
Does your spouse or sibling gaining weight increase your chance of becoming obese? Does the happiness of those around us make us happy and optimistic people too? These questions have been addressed by Harvard researcher Nicholas Christaki & University of California’s James Fowler. The effects are interesting to say the least. For example, data appears to suggest that having a friend close to us who becomes happy greatly increases the likelihood of the level of our happiness also shooting up in the near future (as is the case with neighbours and spouses). What’s more, in one study the researchers report that having a friend that has become obese greatly increases your chances of becoming obese (an alarmingly big 50% increase). Furthermore, data is suggestive that depression may also work similarly. A now dated study from the 80’s supports this premise by showing how being assigned to a university dorm with a roommate that was mildly depressed resulted in increased depressive symptoms over several months.
The analysis is also interesting because in some of the studies we see that such social spreading of emotions or weight are dependent on gender. In that you are much more likely to be affected by a person if they are of the same gender. There is also suggestion that it isn’t simply a case of people surrounding themselves with others who are similar. (E.g. two friends happiness could be similar not because ones mood has made the other happier, but because both only tend to associate with happy people) Because the data analysis can help to control for this and track individuals over time, the researchers suggest that things like happiness or obesity can ‘spread’ through social networks, almost akin to a computer virus.
If this is really happening then how can it be explained? One such mechanism is social norms. We look out to those around us to help us define what is normal and acceptable. Therefore, if our friends around us are splitting up with husbands and wives we consider this option too. This may be particularly important when considering the possible spread of obesity. Could having friends that eat a lot result in us eating a little bit too much on a regular basis? In a study with University of Birmingham students, our laboratory has presented some results that back this idea up. Leading participants to believe that ‘previous participants’ had either eaten a lot or eaten very little during our experiment greatly influenced the amount of snack food the participants decided to eat later on in the session. A problem with this social norm idea is that it probably can’t fully account for happiness or depression. It doesn’t seem quite right that somebody may become depressed because it seems the normal thing to do.
One explanation may be quite direct; seeing someone happy is quite nice and one can’t help but smile. Yet, there is a further and perhaps more intriguing explanation. A large amount of research has shown that we have a tendency to unconsciously mimic the actions and facial expressions of others. It could be thought of as a form of social ritual and there is some suggestion that this takes place to ease social relations. Indeed, people do tend to like those that are similar to them. A study reported by Rick van Baaren and colleagues in 2004 has shown that mimicry can lead to advantages. Researchers instructed a waitress to either mimic customers and repeat their order or stay quiet. The mimicking waitresses ended up being awarded significantly more tips! In addition, we are more likely to mimic facial expressions of people we view as part of our group and similar. So, this natural inclination to mimic those around us may result in us copying their expressions and behaviours, which over time could be for the good or the worse. Fingers crossed your friends smile a lot then.
Findings concerning the impact on (effects) those around us have on us raise some interesting questions. If these results hold up then it is conceivable that previously a husband will have completely unintentionally tipped a wife into a series of depressions. If they were to become aware of this then what would they do? Is it right to cut off people that make us unhappy? Secondly there are also parallels to passive smoking. Because the habits of smokers result in adverse health effects we now see a nationwide ban on smoking in public places. Using the same logic, should we be making depressed people huddle together outside nightclubs and bars? Or have separate sections for obese people in restaurants? Both depression and obesity have been associated with a variety of illnesses and reductions in life expectancy…..
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