Social contagion of mental health: evidence from college roommates.

ABSTRACT: From a policy standpoint, the spread of health conditions in social networks is important to quantify, because it implies externalities and possible market failures in the consumption of health interventions. Recent studies conclude that happiness and depression may be highly contagious across social ties. The results may be biased, however, because of selection and common shocks. We provide unbiased estimates by using exogenous variation from college roommate assignments. Our findings are consistent with no significant overall contagion of mental health and no more than small contagion effects for specific mental health measures, with no evidence for happiness contagion and modest evidence for anxiety and depression contagion. The weakness of the contagion effects cannot be explained by a

SUBMITTER: Eisenberg D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4381550 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature