The Social Contagion Hypothesis: Comment on "Social Contagion Theory: Examining Dynamic Social Networks and Human Behavior"

Abstract

I reflect on the statistical methods of the Christakis-Fowler studies on network-based contagion of traits by checking the sensitivity of these kinds of results to various alternate specifications and generative mechanisms. Despite the honest efforts of all involved, I remain pessimistic about establishing whether binary health outcomes or product adoptions are contagious if the evidence comes from simultaneously observed data.

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Contrasting Multiple Social Network Autocorrelations for Binary Outcomes, With Applications To Technology Adoption