Study Buddies
Studious friends and roommates might lead to higher grades in college
This article goes over some of the reasons why having studious friends may encourage you to be studious as well. Citing a few working research papers, the article states that having friends that study a lot may encourage you to increase your study time. One of the main reasons it claims for this finding is that if your friends are going to the library, and you’re looking to hang out or goof around, chances are you’re going to go to the library too. And whatever your original intentions may have been in hanging out with your friends, there’s a chance you get some studying done while you’re at the library. The article also obviously claims that the opposite scenario is true also- if your friends tend to party more / study less, then you’re more likely to do the same.
These concepts can be viewed in the sense of the class in that people may find it more advantageous to be with their friends and do what they are doing. There can be payoffs to doing what your friends are doing in the sense that you’re getting to hang out with your friends and satisfying your want to do so. The decisions made by just two friends can possibly influence the decision of another friend, and with a cascade, could influence a whole bunch of people to go to the library depending on how close and big the network of friends is.