Social Networks and Drinking

Social networks may influence alcohol consumption.
The Time (4/5, O'Callaghan) "Wellness" blog reported, researchers recently "found that, like so many other things, drinking habits can be contagious: if a close connection...drank heavily -- defined as an average of one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men -- participants were 50% more likely to drink heavily themselves; if someone connected by two degrees of separation (a friend of a friend) drank heavily, participants were 36% more likely to do so." The "social impact of drinking continued to three degrees of separation -- that is, if your friend's mom's cousin drinks heavily, you're about 15% more likely to do so too -- but disappeared after four degrees of separation," according to the paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine.