ReviewStatistics in medicine2013
Social contagion theory: examining dynamic social networks and human behavior.
Review in Statistics in medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 378 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
378 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Social Network Interventions for Improving Dietary Adherence Among Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review.Nutrition reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Human social isolation and stress: a systematic review of different contexts and recommendations for future studies.Trends in psychiatry and psychotherapy · 2024Pooled it
- Social connections and risk of incident mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and mortality in 13 longitudinal cohort studies of ageing.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2023Pooled it
- Transformation of identity in substance use as a pathway to recovery and the potential of treatment for hepatitis C: a systematic review.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Adult friendship and wellbeing: A systematic review with practical implications.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Gamification for Family Engagement in Lifestyle Interventions: A Systematic Review.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2021Pooled it
- Conceptualising the social networks of vulnerable children and young people: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Characteristics of Gun Advertisements on Social Media: Systematic Search and Content Analysis of Twitter and YouTube Posts.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Social network interventions for health behaviours and outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Associations of egocentric social network characteristics with conversations about the harms of smoking and the benefits of quitting.PloS one · 2026Trial
- Promoting rational antibiotic prescribing for non-complicated infections: understanding social influence in primary care networks in Germany.BMC family practice · 2020Trial
- Article
- Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Communication Between PrEP-Eligible Latino Men: an Egocentric Analysis of Dyadic Characteristics and Behaviors.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2026Article
- Bivalent impact of social networks on overarming: Insights on the alignment between social and individual interests.Science advances · 2026Article
- The role of professional networks and institutional prestige in shaping the first career moves of scholars.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Whispers of Pathogens; Social Contagion in Infectious Disease Dynamics: A Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Countering the forgetting of novel health information with 'social boosting'.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- The PrEParados Model: A Community-Based Approach to Engaging Preexposure Prophylaxis‒Eligible Men Into HIV Prevention Programs, South Florida, 2022‒2023.American journal of public health · 2026Article
- The Role of Health Networks in Disseminating Knowledge about Infant HIV Testing in Rural Uganda: Population-Based Sociocentric Network Study.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Effect of Helpers Stay Quit Online Training on Preventing Smoking Relapse and Personal Networks: Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial and Embedded Mixed Methods Personal Network Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
318 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Here, we review the research we have conducted on social contagion. We describe the methods we have employed (and the assumptions they have entailed) to examine several datasets with complementary strengths and weaknesses, including the Framingham Heart Study, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, and other observational and experimental datasets that we and others have collected. We describe the regularities that led us to propose that human social networks may exhibit a 'three degrees of influence' property, and we review statistical approaches we have used to characterize interpersonal influence with respect to phenomena as diverse as obesity, smoking, cooperation, and happiness. We do not claim that this work is the final word, but we do believe that it provides some novel, informative, and stimulating evidence regarding social contagion in longitudinally followed networks. Along with other scholars, we are working to develop new methods for identifying causal effects using social network data, and we believe that this area is ripe for statistical development as current methods have known and often unavoidable limitations.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.