Medical innovation revisited: Social contagion versus marketing effort

This article shows that Medical Innovation-the landmark study by Coleman, K atz, and Menzel-and several subsequent studies analyzing the diffusion of t he drug tetracycline have confounded social contagion with marketing effect s. The article describes the medical community's understanding of tetracycl ine and how the drug was marketed. This situational analysis finds no reaso ns to expect social contagion; instead, aggressive marketing efforts may ha ve played an important role. The Medical Innovation data set is reanalyzed and supplemented with newly collected advertising data. When marketing effo rts are controlled for, contagion effects disappear. The article underscore s the importance of controlling for potential confounds when studying the r ole of social contagion in innovation diffusion.