Galery

2

1

According to a new scientific research, the most popular people get flu or other viruses about two weeks before the others. Being popular has its negative sides as the study of the Greek-American professor from the Harvard University Nicholas Christakis confirmed.

"Being at the center of social networks makes you happier, but also makes you more vulnerable in terms of diseases," says Fowler. This so-called "paradox of friendship" according to the two scientists who are specialists in social networks may be important to understand the behaviour of a virus that can cause a pandemic.
 
The two scientists have observed how the Η1Ν1virus has spread in the winter of 2009 among 744 students at Harvard. They have found that the young people that were at the centre of a group and other networks became sick approximately two weeks before the others.
 
Nicholas Christakis attracted media attention in 2007 with the publication on how obesity and weight loss can spread from person to person through social networks, just like a virus during an epidemic. Professor Christakis published a series of articles over the years that claimed that not only obesity but also other trends and behaviours related to health as smoking and happiness spread through social networking. He said that if a friend of yours quits smoking it will be much easier for you to quite smoking too. And if you I knew good news about a friend of a friend - this can also affect your mood and improve it, which, in turn, may "infect" other friends of yours. In 2009 the Time magazine ranked Nicholas Christakis among the 100 most influential people on the planet.

Nicholas Christakis survey that the most popular people get sick first was conducted in cooperation with his colleague James Fowler from the University of California and published in the scientific journal PloS ONE.