heartharmony.com.au

This is not going to be one of those maudilin posts raving about how great friends are (that’s a given). What this post is about is the results of a whole pile of scientific research just released that looks at the influence of people around you on your success.

The 3 January 2009 New Scientist reports on some fascinating studies that your behaviour is influenced by your friends (and the friends of those friends) more powerfully than you think. Nicolas Christakis from Harvard Medical School in Boston is one of the pioneers of the research.

Everything from happiness, depression, obesity, drinking, smoking, ill-health, food preferences, whether or not you vote, privacy and even suicide have all been studied. And what has been found is mind-blowing. All of these things pass through our social networks in much the same way that a virus does. Yes, happiness is contagious – but so is depression!

Christakis work has found that a person’s happiness is dependant not only the happiness of an immediate friend, but to a lesser degree on the happiness of the friends friends and even their friends friends friends. A person’s chance of being happy increase the better connected they are to happy people.

This is also true of obesity – the researchers found that an individual’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57% if one of their friends became obese, 40% if a sibling did and 37% if their spouse did.

Depression has similar viral transmission – with the spread of depression amongst office workers and nurses showing close links between increased depression in friends and colleagues.

The largest influencers on your overall success on all of the areas tested are your close same gender friends, followed by your friends, siblings and then finally your spouse.

So what does this mean for you and your business?

Well, if your New Years resolutions include anything health or happiness related you may need to audition some new friends who are aligned with how you want to become and spend less time with those who have traits you don’t wish to share.

With employees it is now even more vital to ensure your hires are positive, enthusiastic people and to deal quickly with negativity and backbiting before it spreads through your organisation.

There is a truism often touted in personal development programs that you will only be as successful as the average success of your seven closest friends. Now this truism has a growing weight of scientific evidence backing it up.

Test it yourself – take an average of your closest seven friends in terms of weight, income, happiness and so on.  Interesting isn’t it!

What do you think about this research?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriters