Social networking and fashionable trends may help explain the recent rise in binge drinking, British researchers say.

Science Daily reported June 24 that researchers at Durham University surveyed 504 18- to 24-year-olds and concluded that many binge drinkers copied the behavior of their friends, family members and colleagues. About one in five of the young adults surveyed were classified as binge drinkers.

Lead author Paul Ormerod and colleagues found that 85 percent of binge drinkers believed that all, almost all, or most of their friends were binge drinkers, as well, compared to 41 percent of non-binge drinkers. Just 3 percent of binge drinkers said they had no or hardly any friends who binged, compared to 22 percent of non-binge drinkers.

Researchers said that interaction between overlapping friendship groups best explained the findings, putting the blame for binge drinking on complex social networking. "We show that the rise in binge drinking is a fashion-related phenomenon, with imitative behavior spreading across social networks, is sufficient to account for observed patterns of binge drinking behavior," said Ormerod. "This discovery is helpful to policy makers as it suggests, for example, that strategies based on the concept that there is a small number of 'influentials' who are important in the spread of antisocial behavior are not likely to be very successful."

The study is available online at arXiv.