A completely fascinating study published on the Social Science Research Network looked at how likely a marriage was to survive depending on who else in the social network was getting divorced.

The study used data from the famous Framington Heart Study and found that while we tend to think of marriage as a ‘couple thing’ is turns out that even our most intimate bonds are deeply embedded into the social webs we weave.

If you divorce then it’s more likely that your friends will also divorce. This is a finding of the authors of ‘Connected’ Christiakis and Fowler. A large part of what we learn we learn by mimesis – imitating those around us, particularly, those important to us. We learn to smoke (and to stop smoking) from those around us. We get obese for the same reasons. But the idea that divorce – matters of the heart – are equally influenced by our social network, is surprising.