IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v224y2019icp1-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contributions of personality to social influence: Contingent associations between social network body size composition and BMI

Author

Listed:
  • Perry, Brea L.
  • Ciciurkaite, Gabriele

Abstract

Social influence is a key determinant of health behaviors and outcomes. Research in the social network tradition emphasizes social structural mechanisms like network content (i.e., the degree to which particular attitudes, attributes, or behaviors are present in the network) and social proximity (i.e., opportunities for social interaction). In contrast, psychologists are oriented toward the individual, identifying how personality traits like self-monitoring affect susceptibility to peer pressure. Here, we integrate social network and personality approaches, examining social influence on body size using surveys of 379 adults with dependent children. Our findings suggest that the association between social network body size composition and respondent BMI is contingent on both individual susceptibility to influence (i.e., high self-monitoring) and social proximity (i.e., opportunities for co-eating). These results indicate that individuals embedded in social networks bring unique sets of social skills and orientations to interactions, potentially influencing the flow of content across networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Perry, Brea L. & Ciciurkaite, Gabriele, 2019. "Contributions of personality to social influence: Contingent associations between social network body size composition and BMI," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 1-10.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:224:y:2019:i:c:p:1-10
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619300449
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Umberson, Debra & Liu, Hui & Mirowsky, John & Reczek, Corinne, 2011. "Parenthood and trajectories of change in body weight over the life course," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(9), pages 1323-1331.
    2. Cunningham, Solveig A. & Vaquera, Elizabeth & Maturo, Claire C. & Venkat Narayan, K.M., 2012. "Is there evidence that friends influence body weight? A systematic review of empirical research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1175-1183.
    3. Umberson, Debra, 1992. "Gender, marital status and the social control of health behavior," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 907-917, April.
    4. Hruschka, D.J. & Brewis, A.A. & Wutich, A. & Morin, B., 2011. "Shared norms and their explanation for the social clustering of obesity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(SUPPL. 1), pages 295-300.
    5. Pachucki, M.A. & Jacques, P.F. & Christakis, N.A., 2011. "Social network concordance in food choice among spouses, friends, and siblings," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(11), pages 2170-2177.
    6. Peter V. Marsden & Noah E. Friedkin, 1993. "Network Studies of Social Influence," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 22(1), pages 127-151, August.
    7. Hammer, Muriel & Gutwirth, Linda & Phillips, Susan L., 1982. "Parenthood and social networks : A preliminary view," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 16(24), pages 2091-2100, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Missinne, Sarah & Colman, Elien & Bracke, Piet, 2013. "Spousal influence on mammography screening: A life course perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 63-70.
    2. Reczek, Corinne, 2012. "The promotion of unhealthy habits in gay, lesbian, and straight intimate partnerships," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(6), pages 1114-1121.
    3. Zhang, J. & Tong, L. & Lamberson, P.J. & Durazo-Arvizu, R.A. & Luke, A. & Shoham, D.A., 2015. "Leveraging social influence to address overweight and obesity using agent-based models: The role of adolescent social networks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 203-213.
    4. John B. Bingham & James B. Oldroyd & Jeffery A. Thompson & Jeffrey S. Bednar & J. Stuart Bunderson, 2014. "Status and the True Believer: The Impact of Psychological Contracts on Social Status Attributions of Friendship and Influence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 73-92, February.
    5. Molly A. Martin & Margaret Gough Courtney & Adam M. Lippert, 2022. "The Risks and Consequences of Skipping Meals for Low-Income Mothers," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2613-2644, December.
    6. Borau, Sylvie & Couprie, Hélène & Hopfensitz, Astrid, 2022. "The prosociality of married people: Evidence from a large multinational sample," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    7. Iljana Schubert & Judith I. M. de Groot & Adrian C. Newton, 2021. "Challenging the Status Quo through Social Influence: Changes in Sustainable Consumption through the Influence of Social Networks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-17, May.
    8. Ribar, David C., 2004. "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies," IZA Discussion Papers 998, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Els Weinans & George van Voorn & Patrick Steinmann & Elisa Perrone & Ahmadreza Marandi, 2024. "An Exploration of Drivers of Opinion Dynamics," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 27(1), pages 1-5.
    10. Martine R. Haas & Sangchan Park, 2010. "To Share or Not to Share? Professional Norms, Reference Groups, and Information Withholding Among Life Scientists," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 873-891, August.
    11. Katarina Zigova, 2017. "Specifying Social Weight Matrices of Researcher Networks: The Case of Academic Economists," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2017-10, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    12. Rong Fu & Haruko Noguchi, 2018. "Does the positive relationship between health and marriage reflect protection or selection? Evidence from middle-aged and elderly Japanese," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1003-1016, December.
    13. Jolidon, Vladimir, 2022. "Gender inequality and mammography screening: Does living with a partner improve women's mammography uptake?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    14. Wilson, Sven E., 2012. "Marriage, gender and obesity in later life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 431-453.
    15. Linna Luo & Bowen Pang & Jian Chen & Yan Li & Xiaolei Xie, 2019. "Assessing the Impact of Lifestyle Interventions on Diabetes Prevention in China: A Modeling Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-12, May.
    16. Sylvia Keim & Andreas Klärner & Laura Bernardi, 2009. "Who is relevant? Exploring fertility relevant social networks," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-001, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    17. Paulo B. Goes & Mingfeng Lin & Ching-man Au Yeung, 2014. "“Popularity Effect” in User-Generated Content: Evidence from Online Product Reviews," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 222-238, June.
    18. Hung-Lin Tao, 2019. "Marriage and Happiness: Evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(6), pages 1843-1861, August.
    19. Damien Bricard & Stéphane Legleye & Myriam Khlat, 2017. "Changes in Smoking Behavior over Family Transitions: Evidence for Anticipation and Adaptation Effects," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-10, June.
    20. Kieron Barclay & Martin Kolk, 2019. "Parity and Mortality: An Examination of Different Explanatory Mechanisms Using Data on Biological and Adoptive Parents," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(1), pages 63-85, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:224:y:2019:i:c:p:1-10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.