Opinion Leaders

I am surprised that there has not been more talk about opinion leaders, and their opposites, in the readings. I believe that they play a huge part in spreading anything through a certain network. If not a leader in opinions, they could be a leader of actions. For example, I have a friend who is generous, smart, and good to talk to in any situation; all qualities that I highly respect. On the other hand, I have another friend who is great fun to hang out with, but mooches off of my roommates and me, is less respectable, and just lacks many of the qualities seen in my other friend. I would assume that most people are in situations like this, where they have friends that they might “look up to,” and others that they “look down upon.” One study where I think these types of relationships make a large difference is with obesity. If I was being surveyed, I would definitely list both of these people as friends, but they would have completely different effects on me. If my first friend started gaining weight, I might see it as a more of a norm and not really care if I started gaining weight. On the other hand, if my second friend started gaining weight, I would probably not want to gain weight because I associate him with certain qualities that I do not want to have. Another example would be if my mother was a very hard worker and someone I respected highly, but my father was lazy and drunk whenever he was around the house. Obviously I would list both these connections in the survey, but they would have different effects on me. If my mother gained weight, I would probably justify it because of all the hard work she does, and then associate gaining weight with working hard. Whereas if my father gained weight, I would associate that quality to being lazy and drunk, attributes that I do not want to have. I think it would be a very telling statistic to ask the people in this study what level of respect they have for the connections that they listed, and see what effect it has on their final outcome.