For a recent consumer understanding project we did research that used peer-to-peer recruiting. What does this mean? We recruit a few consumers on a very specific set of criteria: the perfect consumers for the particular project. We asked them to recruit their friends. We do research among all of them. It is a practice that I began using a few seasons ago with lifestyles brands. The premise is that people hang out with like-minded folks as it relates to particular aspects of their lives. The results are rich, comprehensive and help us develop flat consumers into very robust characters that in turn make for a great strategic story.
Today I stumbled upon an article with scientific proof around this concept. Read below.
You and Your Friends Have Similar Genes, from Good magazine
http://www.good.is/post/science-you-and-your-friends-have-similar-genes/
It’s very likely that you and your friends have similar tastes in art and politics, which is no doubt due in large part to similarities in your educational backgrounds and upbringings. But new scientific researchargues that both nurture and nature may have a hand in why you and your three best friends all love the new Grizzly Bear record.
Working at the University of California, San Diego, and singling out six genes, a team of researchers discovered that people tend to have more in common genetically with friends than non-friends.
After controlling for genetic likeness due to sex, age, race or common ancestry, friends still tended to have the same SNP at one position in a gene encoding the dopamine D2 receptor, DRD2. Friends also showed more variation at one position in a cytochrome gene, CYP2A6, than non-friends.
An ‘opposites attract’ phenomenon may account for the variation in CYP2A6 among friends, say the authors. The study also suggests that genetic patterns don’t always show up for friends who connect through similar activities, such as running marathons or playing musical instruments.
The researchers theorize that there may be an evolutionary benefit to having friends with comparable genotypes, as it increases the odds the friend group’s collective fitness will remain stable.
Other scientists say the San Diego team’s miniscule, six-gene sample type invalidates the study. But James Fowler, who spearheaded the research, says his tests were the most rigorous a geneticist can run.
While they duke it out, perhaps you’ll want to rethink that old saying, “You can choose your friends, but not your family.”
