Social contagion

Social contagion is the spread of behaviors, emotions, attitudes, or ideas between people through social contact and influence. It can occur through direct interaction or networks of indirect connections.

Social influence: Social influence is the effect of other people or groups on an individual's beliefs, feelings, or behavior. It is the broader process through which contagion changes what people think or do.
Social network: A social network is a set of people connected by relationships such as friendship, kinship, or communication. Its pattern of connections shapes who can influence whom.
Epidemic of suicide: Suicide contagion is an increase in suicidal behavior associated with exposure to suicidal acts or reporting. This case highlights the need to distinguish social transmission from simple similarity or coincidence.
Common-cause fallacy: The common-cause fallacy is attributing a correlation between outcomes to direct influence when a shared cause may explain both. People may change together because of one event rather than influencing each other.
Social learning: Social learning is acquiring information, skills, or behavior by observing or interacting with others. Observing others provides a route for behaviors to spread without direct instruction.
Social capital: Social capital comprises resources and advantages available through relationships and group membership. Trust and access within relationships can affect whether influence is accepted.
Mass psychogenic illness: Mass psychogenic illness is the rapid spread of symptoms within a group without an identified physical cause. It demonstrates how symptoms can spread through expectation and social interaction.
Selection bias: Selection bias occurs when the process selecting observations distorts the relationship being studied. People often choose peers who already share their behaviors, mimicking contagion.
Imitation: Imitation is reproducing another person's observed action or expression. Copying visible actions is one direct mechanism by which behaviors spread.
Homophily: Homophily is the tendency for people to form relationships with others who resemble them. Similarity can make influence look like transmission even when people select similar peers.

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