Social Contagion 

STANDING YOUR GROUND IN THE AGE OF GROUP THINK

Why is everyone suddenly saying the same thing, whether it’s an annoying catchphrase like “6-7” or a trending slogan like #MondayMotivation plastered across social media? How is it that one idea or perspective can be so quickly spread and adopted by a whole generation? It’s like a “social contagion” where the latest trend now infects us similar to an infectious disease. Now, when we hear someone counting and they hit the numbers between 5 and 8, a jolt of recognition goes through our heads. This phenomenon is not new, but it is more powerful than ever in our hyperconnected age.   

Sometimes we forget that social media didn’t always exist, but our great, great, great, great grandparents didn’t learn what to believe from their phones. During the 17th century, Europe and other parts of the world witnessed the height of the infamous witch trials, an era marked by fear, superstition, and the persecution of alleged witches. These events were fueled by a phenomenon known as mass hysteria, where collective panic and irrational beliefs spread rapidly through communities. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that anyone, let alone nearly everyone, would consider these ridiculous claims true. This disease, infecting everyone’s mind, is still present today, but it doesn’t look like a burning witch.   

The Spread of Social Contagion in a Hyperconnected World    

Now, instead of the town crier, it’s algorithms that show people only what they want to see, only what they will agree with. After all, we wouldn’t want to view something that disagrees with us. The constant stream of biased data creates a perceived universal agreement on the “right way to think” in our minds, taking away our ability to think critically against it. Why would we? All the information we see supports this ideal viewpoint. The truth isn’t fact; it’s whatever is shouted the loudest. 

These algorithms infect our minds. What might start as an intrusive thought in our head, “What if this person is a witch?” gets supported, agreed with, and built upon. No longer are our incorrect views just that, incorrect. Now they spread and grow, until everyone is burning imaginary witches. Psychologists call this kind of collective delusion a psychic epidemic, a rapid spread of shared beliefs, emotions, or behaviors that override individual judgment and sweep through a population like a mental virus. It’s not that each person independently arrives at the same conclusion; it’s that the group’s emotional momentum becomes more powerful than reason itself. 

Consider the rising trend of self-diagnosing. Jai Ahuja, a doctor of psychiatry, has this to say: “While traditional media has often been criticized for villainizing characters with mental illness, the new-age social media depiction of mental illness carries with it a sense of ‘creative mystique’ – painting mental illness with a glorified aesthetic in segments of society exposed to such media.”4 Issues that were once seen as medical problems to be fixed are now being encouraged and glorified. 

Many Gen Z students seem to not only be sad if they don’t have a mental illness, but actively try to seek one out. In many cases, they simply make it up. A report by The Intake, a medical research company, found that nearly one-third of Gen Z has diagnosed themselves with a mental illness based on things they saw on social media.5 Take a step back and think about it. It’s ridiculous.  

To see an example of another present-day social contagion, let’s look at a report by Eric Kaufmann, a professor at the University of Buckingham. He wrote about the change in how students perceive their own identity over the past couple of years. Most believe that the increase in non-standard identities is due to Gen Z being more comfortable showing who they really are. But this isn’t what the study found. In the last two years, the number of students identifying with non-heterosexual identities has been cut in half. Kaufmann found the reduction wasn’t “the result of a shift to the right, the return of religion or a rejection of woke culture war attitudes.”1 Instead, as students have improved their mental health, reducing cases of depression and anxiety, they have also gone back to their born-with identities. In a second report, Kaufmann found that if you picked out a transgender student in the last five years, the following three things are most likely to be true: they identify as non-religious, they identify as having anxiety or depression, and the year is 2022. His research revealed that “2022 and 2023 were peak years for trans identification.”2  

This doesn’t point towards a cultural revival where people are finally free to be themselves. It points towards a social contagion preying on the depressed and anxious, spiking when it was at the forefront of social media and cultural discourse. When Chloe Cole, a former transgender individual who transitioned back, looks at what she had done she had this to say, “I have some social, cognitive, and sensory processing differences that made school and going through puberty a little more difficult. All things considered, these struggles were normal but were misrepresented as problems connected to gender.”3 Not, “I really thought I was meant to be a man”, but that normal struggles were being misrepresented as a problem connected to her gender.  

So what makes this different from the mass hysteria of the past? Knowledge, both true and fabricated, moves faster than it did 400 years ago. Social media algorithms, curated news streams, and personalized podcasts feed us information. Correctness and accuracy are not a priority; instead, virality and shareability are the focus. If someone will click on it, it’s posted, and the world sees it. You may think this trend increases the number of different ideas people see, but it’s actually quite the opposite. It’s an echo chamber constantly affirming our beliefs and priorities. 

The Importance of Thinking for Yourself   

This contagion is of our own making. We trap ourselves in echo chambers that repeat our absurd thoughts until we believe they are the truth. We need to break out of the mold. If it isn’t social media, then it’s our peers. It’s amazing how quickly people adopt a friend’s opinion on ethics, politics, or morality just to “fit in.” There is a subtle yet persistent pressure to conform. It is simply easier to “go along to get along” than to voice a different opinion. Most of the time, it isn’t even a conscious decision, but a willingness to take the easiest option. Simply going with the flow, believing what the crowd does. Surely, we think, they can’t be wrong.   

What used to be personal responsibility has been replaced with a label, an identity, that spreads from person to person like an emotional virus. If everyone else has a disorder to point to, then we feel we need one too. It becomes a socially transmitted explanation, a way to belong, a way to avoid accountability. This is not compassion; it is another sign of infection.  

Ultimately, the challenge of our age is not the lack of information but the courage to question it. In a world where lies spread faster than truth, thinking before believing becomes a radical act. We must learn to pause before we share, to think before we agree, and to seek wisdom beyond the echo chambers of our feeds. History reminds us that collective belief can be disastrously wrong, and technology has only amplified that risk. The responsibility to resist blind conformity falls on each of us, not just for our own integrity but for the health of the people around us.