“The study is the first work to document experimentally Fowler and Christakis’s earlier findings that social contagion travels in networks up to three degrees of separation, and the first to corroborate evidence from others’ observational studies on the spread of cooperation.

Read more on Cooperation goes viral…

Interesting research.  As an evolutionary mechanism, it makes sense – if you need food *now*,  planting seeds is less attractive than eating them. More likely we will see this immediately tested in marketing. If you want to sell pie in the sky,  serve pie. If you want to have them take the immediate offer because it’s to your advantage to do so, serve celery and carrots. Or something like that

Read more on blood glucose, decision making, and future orientation…

Interesting stuff. As vanDellen also points out, if you make the non-self control choice, you still can’t blame it on someone else.

People tend to mimic the behavior of those around them, and characteristics such as smoking, drug use and obesity tend to spread through social networks. But vanDellen's study is thought to be the first to show that self-control is contagious across behaviors. That means that thinking about someone who exercises self-control by regularly exercising, for example, can make your more likely to stick with your financial goals, career goals or anything else that takes self-control on your part.

Read more on Self-control is contagious?…

photo credit:
djuggler

Interesting news – and right in line with our research objectives.

The competition aimed to develop new ways to understand how information is disseminated through social networks within small amount of time, the study could further be used to help solve big problems through chain of social networking.

Read more on Social networking theory helps win balloon hunt…

I can already hear the clamor for a home unit, with sensors conveniently close to the kitchen table. Your New BFF will be telling you to wash your hands….

The trademarked system, called HyGreen, logs, down to the second, the frequency of hand cleaning and contact with patients in a database that clinical supervisors can review immediately.

Read more on “This Isn’t Big Brother”…