Probably not surprising to anyone who’s ever grappled with weight issues is this week’s finding from the New England Journal of Medicine that obesity spreads through our social connections, especially those of close friends. The researchers note:

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%.

While of course you can’t blame your friends for being overweight or grappling with eating issues, it does seem that there is a friendship- and close relationship influence that should be taken into account when trying to lose weight. The researchers attribute this finding to a social contagion — that seeing others overweight makes it seem more okay. This makes sense and has a rich history of peer-influence research to back it up.

The researchers further suggest that if a group effect is helping to influence a person’s eating behaviors and making it seem acceptable to overeat, then perhaps group treatments (such as group psychotherapy) may be one way of combating this.

Is this result really surprising? People smoked because other people smoked and made it seem both cool and acceptable. People do drugs for much the same reason. People get up and dance when they see others get up and dance. And I’ve never been to a dinner with friends where if one couple was having dessert, the rest didn’t follow with their own dessert orders.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Jul 2007
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