Obesity in a Facebook Network

This graph shows a subcomponent drawn from a network of 1,700 undergraduate students whose social ties were ascertained using Facebook. Each node represents one person and ties between them indicate a close friendship. Square nodes are men and circular nodes are women. The interior color of the nodes indicates the person’s obesity status: red denotes an obese person, orange an overweight person, yellow an underweight person, and white a normal-sized person. Clusters of obese and non-obese individuals are visible in this online network. For more details about the dataset, see: K. Lewis, J. Kaufman, M. Gonzalez, A. Wimmer, and N.A. Christakis, “Tastes, Ties, and Time: A New (Cultural, Multiplex, and Longitudinal) Social Network Dataset Using Facebook.com,” Social Networks 2008; 30: 330-342. For more about obesity in the network, see Facebook, Obesity, and Your Friends’ Friends.