Local norms, political discontent and health behaviors: investigating novel determinants of geographic and intergenerational differences in health behaviors

Does living in a place with manysmokers increase one’slikelihood to remain a smoker? Does living in a neighborhood with manybikers make you bike more? Health behaviors are expected to spread throughout local communities through social influence and group conformation, suggesting that local descriptive normsshapethe adoption of collective health behaviors. Furthermore,low institutional legitimacy and political discontentin particular geographic regionsmay impede the adoption of healthier behavior in those communities. Therefore, this project will investigate the role of local, descriptive health norms and political discontent as potential determinants of (the intergenerational transmission of) health behaviors.