In order to develop better public health interventions, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which they exert their effects.

The MECHANISMS study series investigates the why and how behind network- and norm-based health-behaviour interventions among adolescents. Rather than simply asking “Does it work?”, we ask: What are the causal pathways? Which mechanisms are triggered? Under what contexts do they operate? And for whom? Through rigorous designs combining social network measurement, game-theoretic tasks of norm sensitivity, longitudinal data, and mediation/experimental approaches, our team aimed to unpack mechanisms such as norm-sensitivity, peer-influence, network position, and diffusion of behaviours in school settings.