formation of social ties due to matching individual traits; social contagion, also known as social influence; and the causal … imitation (a form of social contagion) can produce substantial correlations between an individual's enduring traits and his or …

analyses of the type employed by Christakis and Fowler will still yield valid tests of the null of no social contagion, even … additional period, then under the null of no contagion, the problems of model inconsistency and statistical dependence … effectively disappear which allow for testing for contagion. Our results clarify the setting in which even "flawed" social network …