Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and how They Shape Our Lives

In this book the authors present evidence for the profound influence people have on one another's tastes, health, wealth, happiness, beliefs, even weight, as they explain how social networks form and how they operate. Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you do not know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of the two authors (both have Phds), which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide. Here they explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. The book shows that our world is governed by the Three Degrees of Influence Rule: we influence and are influenced by people up to three degress removed from us, most of whom we do not even know. The book overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm, that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. Like schools of fish changing direction in unison, we are unconciously led by the people around us.