Our results support the basic idea that, since people are connected, their health is also connected. Network phenomena might be exploited to spread positive health behaviors, a suggestion supported by numerous prior studies in the domain of drinking. For example, drinking cessation programs that provide peer support – that is, that modify the social network of the target – are more successful (47,48,49). Interestingly, the oldest peer social support network in the country, Alcoholics Anonymous, is specifically designed to help foster social network connections to encourage abstinence among its members and to foster ties between principals and principal-identified contacts known as “sponsors.” Alcoholics Anonymous reflects the creation of a kind of deliberate social network. Not only bad, but also good, behaviors may spread across a range of social ties at some distance from their origin. More generally, our findings reinforce the idea that drinking is a public health and clinical problem that involves groups of inter-connected people who evince shared behaviors, and targeting these behaviors would rightly involve addressing groups of people and not just individuals.
