(2019-01-13) Beyond Social Networks How Cultural Beliefs Really Spread

Beyond Social Networks: How Cultural Beliefs Really Spread. Social contagion didn’t adequately explain the anti-vaxxers. “We were passionately divergent about how we interpreted the same reality,” Goldberg says, “yet the idea that we were in different networks was just incorrect.”

Amir Goldberg came up with a new theory, which he calls associative diffusion.

When people are exposed to certain beliefs and behaviors, they don’t just automatically “catch the bug.” Rather, they receive information about which ideas and actions tend to go together.

While the social contagion theory assumes that the structure of networks is what determines varied preferences, associative diffusion argues that what matters most is the meaning people ascribe to the world around them

someone might notice that people who prefer home births and oppose genetically modified foods are against vaccinating their children. The observer learns that anti-vaxxing is associated with those health-related choices, and if she identifies with those, she may decide to update her behavior regarding vaccinations. (This is theoretical — Goldberg hasn’t empirically studied vaccine naysayers.)

The implication is that you have to change people’s perception of the associations,” Goldberg says. With smoking, for example, it took decades of public awareness campaigns for people to stop seeing cigarettes as symbols of rebellion and coolness and start viewing them as gross and unhealthy.