This is the second part of a series of postings in which I explore the growing mountain of scientific evidence that supports that human have, as a species, a cooperative nature.
In July of 2007 the New England Journal of Medicine released a study that had followed 12,067 people in the Massachusetts town of Framingham over a fifty year period of time. What they found was astounding. According to the Dallas Morning News, the study "was the first to demonstrate that obesity – and perhaps other health problems that involve behavior or lifestyle – spreads through social networks."
To show how effective social networks are in affecting weight it was found that the chances of becoming obese went up 57% if a friend became obese, 40% if a sibling’s changed, and 37% if the person was a spouse. The most outstanding chance of change was if a close friend’s weight changed. If so then the chances that a person would become obese went up an amazing 171%!
In the study they were able to rule out several factors. First, they found that there was no statistical significance for socioeconomic class or access to healthy food. It turned out that there was a closer connection between friends that lived hundreds of miles away than there were between next door neighbors. In addition, they were able to rule out "birds of a feather" or that obese people were attracted to similarly obese by excluding those friends who were both obese at the start.
So what was taking place? According to a co-author of the study, Nicholas Christakis with the Harvard Medical School, "What we think is going on here is emulation." The behavior of emulation is certainly one trait expected to be found within a cooperative species.
In the third part of this series I’ll explore some of the animal studies and how they support the evolution of a cooperative human species.
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