In recent years a significant number of surveys have been conducted on how people are influenced, from these studies the rule of the three degrees of influence was born, a very interesting theory that motivates us to pay attention to the effect of what we say and do. .
The theory of six degrees separation first appeared some time ago, she said that each person is separated from the great figures of humanity only by six degrees, that is, each of us knows someone who in turn knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone who knows Donald Trump.
“Even the most insignificant people have some influence in the world. “Louisa May Alcott.
The rule of influence of the three degrees is similar, but it works differently and has much more decisive effects in our lives. It was formulated by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler in 2010 and shows that, far from the rest, we never will. be an island.
According to Christakis and Fowler, the three-degree rule of influence can be expressed as follows: what we say and do influences the thinking and behavior of our friends (first grade), friends of our friends (second grade) and friends friends of our friends (third grade).
Now, how did you come to that conclusion? In 2007, these researchers took over a study on cardiovascular disease initiated in 1948. This investigation was conducted in framingham, USA. But it’s not the first time Two-thirds of the city’s adult residents participated in the study, and their children and grandchildren did the same.
The previous study required each participant to make a list of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues, many of these contacts were also involved in the research, as the population of this locality is small, this data helped to create a network of relationships between the participants. .
After identifying the links between the study participants, 50,000 links were defined between them, hence the researchers began to cross data on the style and quality of life of the participants, they wanted to know if there were changes in any of the members of this social network had any influence on the other participants.
One of the issues raised in the study was the problem of obesity, then Cristakis and Fowler decided whether, for example, the fact that a person became obese influenced their social network so that other people could also acquire this condition, the results were surprising.
The researchers were able to determine that if a person becomes obese, their friends also have a 45% chance of becoming obese, while their friends ‘friends would have a 20% risk and their friends’ friends would have a 10% risk . Beyond the third degree, no influence was observed, so the rule of the third degree of influence was established.
The researchers concluded that something similar to the problem of obesity was happening with other behaviors, such as smoking; in this situation there was also the rule of the third degree of influence; Similarly, the opposite effect also influenced others: if someone loses weight on the social network, or if someone quits smoking, it also affects the behavior of others.
Christakis and Fowler, along with other researchers, have been able to demonstrate that all of this also applies to attitudes and emotions, for example, people who share friendships with people who feel alone also tend to feel alone, something similar happens with levels of happiness, cooperative behaviors, alcohol consumption and almost all behaviors and attitudes.
To the surprise of researchers, it has also been found that famous artists or characters, for example, have little or no influence on people’s behavior, if a celebrity decides to start a diet, it does not affect their followers. , if a friend does that, the influence is very visible.
What’s that taking us to? Mainly assuming that we are not islands, that everything we say and do affects others in one way or another, if we want a change the best way is to start by ourselves, imperceptibly this will begin to spread and could lead to big changes. that so many people aspire to.