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Differentiate social influence from social selection in rural adult smoking networks

Determine whether clustering of smoking behaviors in the personal networks of adults in the rural Romanian community of Lerești arises primarily from social influence (adoption due to exposure to smokers) or from social selection (homophilous tie formation by individuals inclined to smoke), by using longitudinal data to separate these effects.

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Background

The paper uses cross-sectional personal network data to analyze smoking behaviors among adults in a rural Romanian community. While strong assortativity and clustering by smoking status are observed, cross-sectional designs cannot infer causality concerning whether networks shape behavior or individuals self-select into networks with similar behaviors.

The authors explicitly note that distinguishing social influence from social selection requires longitudinal data, highlighting a core unresolved question in interpreting network effects on smoking behavior.

References

Given the fact that our study is based on cross-sectional data, we cannot distinguish between social selection and social influence within the context of smoking behaviors. Specifically, we cannot determine whether being part of a network with higher rates of smoking leads individuals to adopt smoking behaviors (social influence), or if individuals who already have a preference for smoking are more likely to associate with others who share similar smoking habits (social selection). Collecting longitudinal data may differentiate between these effects.

— Cross-sectional personal network analysis of adult smoking in rural areas (2408.14832 - Mihăilă et al., 27 Aug 2024) in Section 4 (Discussion)