Study: Obesity is socially contagious

[ed21x]

i highly doubt it is socially 'contagious.' It would be more plausible to state that fat people generall prefer to associate with fat people and vise versa for the pure reason that they don't want to feel self conscious about themselves when seen in a group. Good looking people tend to do the same thing as well.

 

[0roo0roo]

more suckiness for the fat
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH...hdefects.ap/index.html
Study links women's obesity, birth defects risk
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Women who are obese before pregnancy face a higher risk of having babies with a variety of birth defects than women with a healthy weight, a new study suggests.

The results involving nearly 15,000 women from eight states found abnormalities of the spine, heart, arms, legs and abdomen, building on previous research that showed heart and spine defects. The greatest risk was for spina bifida.

"Obese women should not be overly alarmed by these findings because their absolute risk of having a child with a birth defect is low, and the cause of the majority of birth defects is unknown," said University of Texas researcher Kim Waller, the study's lead author.

Still, the results underline yet another reason for women to maintain a healthy weight, Waller said......

 

[dustmann]

Originally posted by: foghorn67

I fear the fatness around me. Makes me work out harder.

 

[Aharami]

The study, however, found that it does matter which way the friend arrow points: If subjects named an obese person as a friend, they tended to be affected by that person's obesity.

But when the person on the receiving end did not label the first person as a friend, there was no "obesity contagion" effect in the other direction. The distinct variable here is who calls whom a "friend."

cool, so as long as i keep denying my friendship with fat people, i wont get fat? Awesome!

actually come to think of it, I dont really have any fat friends. A few chubby maybe, but none that would fall under the obese category

 

[Unmoosical]

Originally posted by: Dunbar

Originally posted by: Squisher
Remember cross district busing (busing inner city kids to suburban schools)? Well, it was prompted by The Coleman Report which basically said the biggest factor that caused people to excel was being surrounded by people whose expectations were higher. In other words if you wanted to become a better bowler you could buy a better ball or take lessons, but your best results would be from joining a league of high rollers.

And as Steven Levitt points out in Freakonomics, bussing kids to "better" schools made almost no difference in their academic performance.

Now THAT is a great book that more people should look into.