These general findings correspond with previous literature on obesity, smoking, happiness, and depression (10,11,12,13,14), though there are specific patterns of spread that appear to be particular to alcohol use. One unique pattern found in this study relates to the bimodal nature of the social network effects. While network effects were found for smoking cessation (11) (a positive health outcome) and for gaining weight (10) (a negative health outcome), in the case of alcohol consumption, there appears to be a bi-directionality of the effect with respect to both heavy drinking and abstaining. This finding suggests that social network effects may have both positive and negative health consequences for alcohol consumption behavior, depending on the circumstances.
