Advertisements may not be mal-intentioned as they pressure us to consume one product over another but the net effect is simply pressure to eat more. On a more macro scale our society exerts pressures on us that are inescapable no matter our immediate social network. If an individual finds themselves in a health-negative social network they should exert themselves to change group behaviors or, if that fails, join more positive networks such as athletic clubs and nutrition blogs, or find health conscious meal companions. The same principles of social learning can be turned around, however, to promote health through group pressure to maintain an appealing body shape, nutritious social eating, athletic group activities, and choosing active recreation.
walking), and group popularization of sedentary recreation such as video games or tv. Micro-sociological causes include social eating, lack of group exercise, group transportation (driving vs. 2007) It is clear that interpersonal relationships and social learning play a significant role in the spread of obesity. In a study of over 12,000 members of a single social network in which individuals were surveyed repeatedly over a period of more than 30 years it was found that ” A person’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57% if he or she had a friend who became obese in a given interval, among pairs of adult siblings, if one sibling became obese, the chance that the other would become obese increased by 40% and if one spouse became obese, the likelihood that the other spouse would become obese increased by 37%.” (Tamburlini et al. must reflect major changes in non-genetic factors."( Hill and Trowbridge 1998) “Despite obesity having strong genetic determinants, the genetic composition of the population does not change rapidly. James O Hill presented a more conclusive argument for obesity being primarily a social problem. Through the study of genetics, however, science has shown that we all fight a different fitness battle. If you’re not in shape, they might say, it’s your own fault and you can fix it just as well as anyone else. Many people, especially conservatives with their emphasis on personal responsibility, seem to see the problem as an individual pathology. I found it to be really interesting and it wasn’t published anywhere else on the internet, so I obtained permission to post it here. When some commenters expressed a desire to discover the causes for this dramatic increase over the past 20 years, neolduser posted the following paper they had written for a Social Problems class. On reddit today, there was a link to an animated map of obesity trends in the United States.