What Are We Looking For?
Trena M. Paulus, Alyssa Friend Wise in Looking for Insight, Transformation, and Learning in Online Talk, 2019
What sparks our interest in online spaces and the talk that takes place there? What do we think (or hope) happens when people come together online, either spontaneously or by design? Whether it is developing ideas, creating community, engaging in social action, or experiencing transformation, as researchers of online talk we are driven by curiosity as to what exactly is happening in these spaces and how it occurs. To ensure that our findings are useful and answer our questions, we have to be clear about what it is we are examining. Defining an object of interest in a meaningful way helps ensure that our study design is coherent. Let’s say a non-profit organization wants to know more about how people respond to their calls for action on social media around particular causes. The object of interest might be defined as social contagion in Facebook comment streams. What is meant by “calls for action” and “social contagion” would need to be defined by the researcher, perhaps using an existing theoretical framework such as emotional contagion (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1993). The researcher would need to decide what counts as evidence for the presence, absence, or change over time of social contagion in the comment streams.
Household water treatment and safe storage *
Jamie Bartram, Rachel Baum, Peter A. Coclanis, David M. Gute, David Kay, Stéphanie McFadyen, Katherine Pond, William Robertson, Michael J. Rouse in Routledge Handbook of Water and Health, 2015
Existing social norms, levels of authority and type of relations that are expected of people can influence the success of HWTS interventions. In situations where women are not allowed out of their homes, authoritarian leaders oppose change and/or community factions constrain community interaction, the diffusion of HWTS will face difficult challenges. Contextual assessments can be conducted to provide information about the conditions of the local system, the existence of social networks that can increase the “social contagion effect,”7 and to help design strategies to overcome challenges and enhance opportunities. For example, the intervention may include talking first to leaders to find out what they think about HWTS and to convince them to support HWTS. Leaders that are centrally located in a social network can become multipliers of the HWTS message and adopters themselves of the new practice – the best possible message if visible and known (Rogers and Kincaid, 1981). The intervention may also include creating opportunities for women to learn about HWTS without the need to leave their home or to join efforts with existing local groups to improve health conditions.
The toxic environment
Anna Bellisari in The Anthropology Of Obesity in the United States, 2016
Until recently, very little was known about the reasons for avoiding physical activity, but the growing obesity epidemic has encouraged scientists to investigate the problem. Large-scale surveys had previously explored individual perceptions of environmental facilitators and barriers to leisure-time physical activity. As might be expected, opportunity for activity and accessibility of safe places to engage in activity turned out to be very important incentives (Lumeng et al. 2006). But of surprising importance, even greater than weather and safety issues, was the aesthetic nature of the outdoor environment. Attractive scenery with hills and trees and friendly neighbors were seen as important stimulants for recreational activity (Owen et al. 2004). A study conducted in six European countries found that what mattered most in motivating people to become physically active was not only specific knowledge about facilities and options for activity and sport but also social support from family, friends, school, and the workplace (Stahl et al. 2001). Much as development of obesity can be traced through a social network, social contagion can promote physical activity through interpersonal cues that activity is considered normal and socially acceptable behavior.
Associations between social contagion, group conformity characteristics, and non-suicidal self-injury
Published in Journal of American College Health, 2023
Alyssa Conigliaro, Erin Ward-Ciesielski
Researchers have proposed that social contagion of NSSI may lead to engagement in self-injurious behavior.17 Social contagion involves the transmission of maladaptive behavior through social means. It is consistent with social learning theory,18 in which peer influence predicts many youth behaviors, values, attitudes, and symptoms through social learning and modeling.19 Adolescents often identify with similar peers20 who then influence their preferences in multiple adaptive and maladaptive areas, including dress, speech, substance use, sexual behavior, and violent behavior.21,22 Being a valued member of a peer group is especially crucial during adolescence, a developmental period defined by individuating from parents and making meaningful connections with peers. Schall et al23 found that feelings of low social connectedness were associated with perceiving conformity as necessary to belong in a social group. For college students specifically, social contagion has been associated with disordered eating behaviors in roommates24 and alcohol use in undergraduates.25
Infodemic, social contagion and the public health response to COVID-19: insights and lessons from Nigeria
Published in Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 2022
Bridget O. Alichie, Nelson Ediomo-Ubong, Blessing Nonye Onyima
Social contagions usage are being integrated into psychological and sociological perspectives to provide deeper insights into the workings of epidemics on social networks. A social epidemic is a phenomenon in which ideas, behaviors or products spread quickly and are said to ‘infect’ people like a virus is supposed to do. According to Magarey and Trexler [13] ‘A social epidemic is a behaviorally based non-communicable disease and they include suicide, violence, opioid addiction, and obesity'. Social epidemics seem to spread with similar rules and patterns as those that govern diseases. Also, scientists have assumptions about how people might ‘catch’ things like emotions and behaviors from another person. In this vein, these support the argument that social contagion is real. It samples how individual levels create the performance of a series of simulations which results in similar social transmission behaviors [12]. The link between pandemic and infodemic spread has therefore become most noticeable in the era of online platforms as is revealed in the subsequent sessions that maps similar zoonotic viral epidemics like Ebola Viral Disease (EVD), Monkeypox, Lassa Fever (LF) and the ongoing COVID-19 zoonotic outbreaks.
Social network theory—an underutilized opportunity to align innovative methods with the demands of the opioid epidemic
Published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2021
Christina M. Cutter, Richard C. Larson, Mahshid Abir
The gravity of the current opioid epidemic demands that we use the best methodologies to identify the most effective interventions. The specific social factors and mediating pathways of opioid overdose and related death are not well understood. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has emphasized the need to consider the role of social systems in the opioid epidemic (5). Social contagion is an important framework that must be considered and more widely adopted.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Emotional Contagion
- Imitation
- Social Influence
- Infection
- Memetics
- Collective Behavior
- Behavioral Contagion
- Social Psychology
- Hysterical Contagion
- Financial Contagion