Our increasingly interconnected world has made it easier for information and disease to spread.
However a new study from Harvard University and Cornell University, entitled “Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties” shows that fewer “degrees of separation” can make social networks too weak to disseminate behavioral change. The finding that “small world” networks are limited in their power to shape individual behavior could have implications for health care policy and the treatment of epidemics.
Source: Harvard University news release, November 5, 2007
(via Smart Mobs)