We humans are born communicators, and we use language, and numerous other methods, to get our message across to others and, often, to express our feelings of solidarity for the people around us.
Sometimes we are so good at communicating that things go awry.
Since the late 19th century, psychologists have studied what is now known as social contagion, which refers to when certain beliefs and behaviours spread spontaneously through a social network.
One of the most well-known twentieth century scholars of the phenomenon is Herbert Blumer, who coined the term ‘social contagion’ in his fascinating paper about a dancing mania in the European Middle Ages, when people compulsively danced. Also known as St Vitus’s Dance, the mania affected adults and children alike, until some of them collapsed, and even died. From the first major outbreak in Aachen, in what today is Germany, the mania spread across much of Europe.
Most scholars agree that social contagion occurs when people spontaneously, rather than consciously, imitate the language and behaviour of others, in a sort of mutated version of the same instinct that sees us adopting popular fashions because we want to communicate our identity and our desire to fit in.
Until recently, most studies of social contagion explored its negative aspects: contagions that caused people to self-harm or otherwise engage in damaging behaviour. But some forms of social contagion can have a positive effect. For example, people who are lucky enough to have neighbours who are mostly happy are more likely to be mostly happy themselves, even after factoring in matters such as relative wealth.
Photo Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/silhouettes-of-people-dancing-at-sunset-by-the-water-WB_PZr8wXxA
