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Strange Contagion: Inside the Surprising Science of Infectious Behaviors and Viral Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves – Palo Alto, Suicide Clusters, and Our Responsibility
Picking up where The Tipping Point leaves off, respected journalist Lee Daniel Kravetz’s Strange Contagion is a provocative look at both the science and lived experience of social contagion.
In 2009, tragedy struck the town of Palo Alto: A student from the local high school had died by suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming train. Grief-stricken, the community mourned what they thought was an isolated loss. Until, a few weeks later, it happened again. And again. And again. In six months, the high school lost five students to suicide at those train tracks.
A recent transplant to the community and a new father himself, Lee Daniel Kravetz’s experience as a science journalist kicked in: what was causing this tragedy? More important, how was it possible that a suicide cluster could develop in a community of concerned, aware, hyper-vigilant adults?
The answer? Social contagion. We all know that ideas, emotions, and actions are communicable—from mirroring someone’s posture to mimicking their speech patterns, we are all driven by unconscious motivations triggered by our environment. But when just the right physiological, psychological, and social factors come together, we get what Kravetz calls a "strange contagion:" a perfect storm of highly common social viruses that, combined, form a highly volatile condition.
Strange Contagion is simultaneously a moving account of one community’s tragedy and a rigorous investigation of social phenomenon, as Kravetz draws on research and insights from experts worldwide to unlock the mystery of how ideas spread, why they take hold, and offer thoughts on our responsibility to one another as citizens of a globally and perpetually connected world.
In 2009, tragedy struck the town of Palo Alto: A student from the local high school had died by suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming train. Grief-stricken, the community mourned what they thought was an isolated loss. Until, a few weeks later, it happened again. And again. And again. In six months, the high school lost five students to suicide at those train tracks.
A recent transplant to the community and a new father himself, Lee Daniel Kravetz’s experience as a science journalist kicked in: what was causing this tragedy? More important, how was it possible that a suicide cluster could develop in a community of concerned, aware, hyper-vigilant adults?
The answer? Social contagion. We all know that ideas, emotions, and actions are communicable—from mirroring someone’s posture to mimicking their speech patterns, we are all driven by unconscious motivations triggered by our environment. But when just the right physiological, psychological, and social factors come together, we get what Kravetz calls a "strange contagion:" a perfect storm of highly common social viruses that, combined, form a highly volatile condition.
Strange Contagion is simultaneously a moving account of one community’s tragedy and a rigorous investigation of social phenomenon, as Kravetz draws on research and insights from experts worldwide to unlock the mystery of how ideas spread, why they take hold, and offer thoughts on our responsibility to one another as citizens of a globally and perpetually connected world.
304 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
July 12, 2017
Psychology and especially why people do what they do has always fascinated me so I was immediately pulled into Strange Contagion. I was not familiar with the Palo Alto tragedies where a series of students and recent graduates from one high school committed suicide on the commuter train tracks, and it is both sad and mystifying. Besides living in the same town and going to the same high school, there was no real connection to these students--they all participated in different activities and were not friends, yet a cluster was formed. Author Kravetz, recently moved to the community looked for an explanation and found it in the phenomenon of social contagion--which if it sounds like a disease, it moves and acts like one with its ability to infect a group like a virus.
I was immediately absorbed in the book which although it can lapse deeply into science and facts at times, manages to put the information forth in a palatable way. Kravetz did a lot of research but the detailed facts he uncovered are tempered with emotion--you can tell he truly cares about his subject and the heartbreak his community faced, as well as having his own fears of bringing up his children in a community where the suicide clusters happened not once, but twice. The examples of social contagions are not limited to Palo Alto--it is in many aspects of life. Examples included bulimia and how the discovery and attempts to provide information via the media led to a sudden increase of cases, gun violence and school shootings, the outbreak of accusations of abuse and satanic rituals at daycare centers across the country, and even the more mundane like work groups and how one negative person on a team can drag down productivity--something I have witnessed many times. There are positive examples of social contagion too, like telenovelas with positive images that led to increased sign-ups for adult literacy. Kravetz gives some ideas including caring more about ourselves and each other, training people to look for warning signs of social contagions, and trying to intercept negative chains before they get started. There is also a resource section on suicide prevention at the back of the book.
Strange Contagion packs a lot of information into 280-some pages and its hard to do it justice in a review. If you like learning about science, psychology and emotion, you will likely find this book as fascinating as I did. Living in the times that we do, it is especially easy to see social contagions in action--as the recent elections are a great example. I found many ah-hah moments in the book and will probably go back and read at least sections of it again. Not a breezy summer read but a good one.
You can see my review, paired with a recipe inspired by my reading here: https://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/2...
Note: A review copy of "The Strange Contagion" was provided to me by the publisher Harper Collins and TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.
I was immediately absorbed in the book which although it can lapse deeply into science and facts at times, manages to put the information forth in a palatable way. Kravetz did a lot of research but the detailed facts he uncovered are tempered with emotion--you can tell he truly cares about his subject and the heartbreak his community faced, as well as having his own fears of bringing up his children in a community where the suicide clusters happened not once, but twice. The examples of social contagions are not limited to Palo Alto--it is in many aspects of life. Examples included bulimia and how the discovery and attempts to provide information via the media led to a sudden increase of cases, gun violence and school shootings, the outbreak of accusations of abuse and satanic rituals at daycare centers across the country, and even the more mundane like work groups and how one negative person on a team can drag down productivity--something I have witnessed many times. There are positive examples of social contagion too, like telenovelas with positive images that led to increased sign-ups for adult literacy. Kravetz gives some ideas including caring more about ourselves and each other, training people to look for warning signs of social contagions, and trying to intercept negative chains before they get started. There is also a resource section on suicide prevention at the back of the book.
Strange Contagion packs a lot of information into 280-some pages and its hard to do it justice in a review. If you like learning about science, psychology and emotion, you will likely find this book as fascinating as I did. Living in the times that we do, it is especially easy to see social contagions in action--as the recent elections are a great example. I found many ah-hah moments in the book and will probably go back and read at least sections of it again. Not a breezy summer read but a good one.
You can see my review, paired with a recipe inspired by my reading here: https://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/2...
Note: A review copy of "The Strange Contagion" was provided to me by the publisher Harper Collins and TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.
April 14, 2023
Fascinating topic. However, Strange Contagion is merely creative nonfiction with sporadic references to scientific phenomena and research. I would have been more compelled if Kravetz had delved deeper into his subject and gave us a more scientific account of priming, community, and how social networks influence us.
June 26, 2017
"Strange Contagion" is a look at how ideas, thoughts, and emotions can be passed between different people. When I hear the word contagion, I think about things like communicable diseases. They are passed from person to person because of people being in close proximity to others. In this book, Kravetz explores how this same sort of passing from person to person can happen with a whole array of things to include thoughts even when the person being passed the thoughts had never had that particular thought before.
I thought it was interesting that Kravetz was drawn to this subject after a rash of teenage suicides plagued his town. Now he happens to live in Palo Alto, California, one of the most affluent areas. It has good schools and the families that live there have the resources to be able to take care of whatever is illing them so the rash of suicides is puzzling. Kravetz wonders what is going on.
Looking at theories and data, he starts drawing connections between how our feelings can pass to each other and what is to be done about it. It is fascinating and something that I hadn't really thought about before but when you start parsing it out, it makes sense. If someone around me is sad or scared, I can feel myself picking up on that feeling. Kravetz also explores how these catching feelings can also mean something good like innovation.
This would be a good read for those who enjoyed books like "The Tipping Point" or other books about things that on their face don't seem to have a real connection to each other but you find the connections when you're willing to dig a bit and consider the unexpected.
I thought it was interesting that Kravetz was drawn to this subject after a rash of teenage suicides plagued his town. Now he happens to live in Palo Alto, California, one of the most affluent areas. It has good schools and the families that live there have the resources to be able to take care of whatever is illing them so the rash of suicides is puzzling. Kravetz wonders what is going on.
Looking at theories and data, he starts drawing connections between how our feelings can pass to each other and what is to be done about it. It is fascinating and something that I hadn't really thought about before but when you start parsing it out, it makes sense. If someone around me is sad or scared, I can feel myself picking up on that feeling. Kravetz also explores how these catching feelings can also mean something good like innovation.
This would be a good read for those who enjoyed books like "The Tipping Point" or other books about things that on their face don't seem to have a real connection to each other but you find the connections when you're willing to dig a bit and consider the unexpected.
October 11, 2021
Fascinating subject with a middling treatment.
Over six months, in separate incidents, five students commit suicide on the railroad tracks near an elite public high school in Silicon Valley. No connection between them, they are all seemingly normal, adjusted, successful children.
This journalist wants to investigate and explain the phenomenon of a “social contagion.” Why are these kids committing suicide? Why did they think of it? Mere suggestibility? Were they “primed” by factors like high pressure, achieving parents, etc.? Do the school’s and community’s response help or hurt?
In my estimation, the author hasn’t succeeding in even remotely answering any of these questions.
The book is a navel-gazing meandering set of chapters, in which Kravetz interviews principals, researchers, teachers, academics, and gives a superficial summary of their words. The text is organized autobiographically – that is, in the literal chronologic order in which he discovered things. He then proceeds to tell us what is going on in his life, often with cloying thesaurus-heavy prose that is distracting and dull. Lots of fluff.
I found this to be a mostly ineffective attempt to tell explore what is otherwise a fascinating topic.
Over six months, in separate incidents, five students commit suicide on the railroad tracks near an elite public high school in Silicon Valley. No connection between them, they are all seemingly normal, adjusted, successful children.
This journalist wants to investigate and explain the phenomenon of a “social contagion.” Why are these kids committing suicide? Why did they think of it? Mere suggestibility? Were they “primed” by factors like high pressure, achieving parents, etc.? Do the school’s and community’s response help or hurt?
In my estimation, the author hasn’t succeeding in even remotely answering any of these questions.
The book is a navel-gazing meandering set of chapters, in which Kravetz interviews principals, researchers, teachers, academics, and gives a superficial summary of their words. The text is organized autobiographically – that is, in the literal chronologic order in which he discovered things. He then proceeds to tell us what is going on in his life, often with cloying thesaurus-heavy prose that is distracting and dull. Lots of fluff.
I found this to be a mostly ineffective attempt to tell explore what is otherwise a fascinating topic.
July 3, 2017
Strange Contagion by Lee Daniel Kravetz is a very highly recommended look at both the science and lived experience of social contagion.
Kravetz began examining what lead to the outbreak of teenage suicide in Palo Alto, CA, in 2009 and he realized that "social contagions, the ways in which others influence our lives by way of catchable thoughts, emotions, and behaviors was the only way to understand and describe the events as they transpired." This thought is the impetus that began his exploration into the phenomenon of social contagion as a way to understand the suicides in an affluent community of concerned, aware, adults.
Certainly, if you have lived long enough you have seen where social contagion exists. One could even argue that it is currently in full display during and after the recent election. Kravetz points out that thoughts, behaviors, and emotions all have flow, and thus "their influence spreads beyond a single person to affect many others within proximity to one another." This influence is not only limited to teenage suicide, but can span a wide variety of occurrences, including voting behavior, public health concerns, violence, and fear. He presents several examples of social contagion, including eating disorders, emotional burnout, hysteria, fear, violence,as well as suicide.
The outbreak and sudden increase of cases of bulimia is an interesting example. "Once information about bulimia started appearing in the media, the condition spread unrestrained. "This was fueled by the media and the spread of information about the eating disorder, and certainly encouraged to some extent by the unrealistic body image standards.
"[F]ear is a powerful social contagion from which no one is entirely immune." The outbreak of concerns over Satanic ritual abuse and abuse at preschools (i.e. McMartin) had all the earmarks of a social contagion. Hysteria feeds on our capacity to imagine the worst and can take "on the qualities of a social contagion, with the ability to manifest and spread over populations by way of mere suggestions."
It is interesting to note that spreading violence and the outbreak of school shootings can share the characteristics of bacterial spread. People already have to be vulnerable in order to imitate the violent actions and thoughts transmitted by the media, discussions, or knowledge. People only seek a goal, whether it is suicide, bulimia, or violent behavior, if it is already a part of their behavioral vocabulary. This would, I imagine, also include violent rioting
Kravetz does recommend that we train people to become "interpreters of the invisible who can identify warning signs of social contagions and intercept the chain before it leads to tragedy." This could include anyone in a work situation who is in the position to notice social contagions and interrupt the chain before it leads to tragedy. We all need to learn to take notice and responsibility for each other.
This provides profoundly vital information and an incredibly interesting look at a social behavior that may likely be increasing with the prevalence of social media today and how fast news of events can spread across the world. Even as we express concern over a virus or a physical threat to our health spreading worldwide, we also need to think about a social contagion doing likewise. Kravetz includes Notes on Support services available, and an extensive list of Selected Sources in this excellent, thoughtful, highly interesting presentation on an important subject.
Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins for TLC.
Kravetz began examining what lead to the outbreak of teenage suicide in Palo Alto, CA, in 2009 and he realized that "social contagions, the ways in which others influence our lives by way of catchable thoughts, emotions, and behaviors was the only way to understand and describe the events as they transpired." This thought is the impetus that began his exploration into the phenomenon of social contagion as a way to understand the suicides in an affluent community of concerned, aware, adults.
Certainly, if you have lived long enough you have seen where social contagion exists. One could even argue that it is currently in full display during and after the recent election. Kravetz points out that thoughts, behaviors, and emotions all have flow, and thus "their influence spreads beyond a single person to affect many others within proximity to one another." This influence is not only limited to teenage suicide, but can span a wide variety of occurrences, including voting behavior, public health concerns, violence, and fear. He presents several examples of social contagion, including eating disorders, emotional burnout, hysteria, fear, violence,as well as suicide.
The outbreak and sudden increase of cases of bulimia is an interesting example. "Once information about bulimia started appearing in the media, the condition spread unrestrained. "This was fueled by the media and the spread of information about the eating disorder, and certainly encouraged to some extent by the unrealistic body image standards.
"[F]ear is a powerful social contagion from which no one is entirely immune." The outbreak of concerns over Satanic ritual abuse and abuse at preschools (i.e. McMartin) had all the earmarks of a social contagion. Hysteria feeds on our capacity to imagine the worst and can take "on the qualities of a social contagion, with the ability to manifest and spread over populations by way of mere suggestions."
It is interesting to note that spreading violence and the outbreak of school shootings can share the characteristics of bacterial spread. People already have to be vulnerable in order to imitate the violent actions and thoughts transmitted by the media, discussions, or knowledge. People only seek a goal, whether it is suicide, bulimia, or violent behavior, if it is already a part of their behavioral vocabulary. This would, I imagine, also include violent rioting
Kravetz does recommend that we train people to become "interpreters of the invisible who can identify warning signs of social contagions and intercept the chain before it leads to tragedy." This could include anyone in a work situation who is in the position to notice social contagions and interrupt the chain before it leads to tragedy. We all need to learn to take notice and responsibility for each other.
This provides profoundly vital information and an incredibly interesting look at a social behavior that may likely be increasing with the prevalence of social media today and how fast news of events can spread across the world. Even as we express concern over a virus or a physical threat to our health spreading worldwide, we also need to think about a social contagion doing likewise. Kravetz includes Notes on Support services available, and an extensive list of Selected Sources in this excellent, thoughtful, highly interesting presentation on an important subject.
Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins for TLC.
August 15, 2018
This book is about the interesting phenomenon of contagious behavior. It includes suicide as well as positive behaviors. The author gives many examples, and the book is well researched and has an extensive list of cited sources. On the other hand, the author meanders and ponders a lot and inserts himself into the story and I found those parts not very interesting. It was a fast read.
June 3, 2019
Amazing! Everyone should read.
July 17, 2025
Reads more like a detailed diary than a science book. As in, read this for the personal feelings of an author of a groundbreaking article that has all the actual science, maths and cited evidence. This book does have a selected sources section but nothing is cited in text. I feel like the author alludes to lots of interviews being done without writing about them happening, I almost suspect there’s another book to read that has all the evidence supplied to read rather than this personal diary-esque recollection of the times.
Also just personally don’t vibe with the personal decisions of the author. Falls for hysteria despite researching the fatal dangers posed by hysteria, thinks it’s a novelty that people treat suicide with emotional education because he’s spent the whole book treating it like an infectious disease, other people are doing the hard work while he’s just reporting on it, accumulating other people’s intelligence and work without lifting a finger to it and then tapping out because he’s prone to hysteria.
He offered no help and proceeded to scientifically strike down every attempt every other person made just trying to make things better.
Interesting subject matter… poor execution or poor executioner? Bit of both maybe.
Also just personally don’t vibe with the personal decisions of the author. Falls for hysteria despite researching the fatal dangers posed by hysteria, thinks it’s a novelty that people treat suicide with emotional education because he’s spent the whole book treating it like an infectious disease, other people are doing the hard work while he’s just reporting on it, accumulating other people’s intelligence and work without lifting a finger to it and then tapping out because he’s prone to hysteria.
He offered no help and proceeded to scientifically strike down every attempt every other person made just trying to make things better.
Interesting subject matter… poor execution or poor executioner? Bit of both maybe.
September 17, 2017
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...
Here's my full review.
Here's my full review.
December 30, 2022
So many issues with this book. First, the entire premise of the book is the author’s investigation of social contagion- behaviors that happen in social clusters. The book takes place in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley. But he doesn’t mention the internet until near the end of the book, and he barely mentions social media and never considers it as a possible factor in the suicides. And yet all of these kids must have been early adopters of iPhones and social media considering where they lived and who their parents were. We know social media has a direct link to teen depression and suicide and this isn’t even mentioned in the book? Seems like a MAJOR omission.
Also a whole book about social contagion with barely any analysis of the biggest real model of social contagion in history? Social media? I don’t get it.
The author is intensely researching all of these solutions but there are no interviews with students or families of the deceased or much personal connection established with the subject of concern, the students! As a high school teacher this blew my mind and yet seemed so typical of the bizarre way we treat teenagers- we fetishize them and treat them like incomprehensible aliens but they’re just growing people without fully developed frontal cortexes. They’re just like us but immature and with poor impulse control- they’re really not a different species. All this hypothesizing about what they’re thinking and why they did it- well surely some of them left notes or talked to friends or posted on social media some reasons why? Seems like that information would have been helpful.
It also was strange that he collected all of this information with the purported reason of stopping the suicides but didn’t seem to take any action or share his research with anyone except a teacher friend? Why not form or join some kind of community action group to share what you learned? Of course everything he learned was academic theory about how humans work and so much of it seemed to be the work of really emotionally detached people.
Speaking of emotionally detached- your school has 9 suicides and you just keep doing everything the same way? This seemed like a total indictment of the community- you just keep feeding your kids to this misery factory of stress despite the obvious toll? Obviously something is seriously wrong- The author basically spells it out- the competitive narcissistic culture of striving that makes people’s entire self worth the college they get into and how much money they make is shitty and abusive and pretty much everything that’s wrong with capitalism. But even though he clearly explains the issue he doesn’t really critique it. There’s kind of just a shrug like, oh well it sucks but that’s how we got Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. Both of whom are not well adjusted people BTW. I mean the author clearly opted out by moving away but he could have drawn more clear conclusions.
I’m glad that as a larger culture we’re starting to question the supremacy of Silcon Valley and expose its toxic effects but this book didn’t really go there which seems like missing the entire point.
Also a whole book about social contagion with barely any analysis of the biggest real model of social contagion in history? Social media? I don’t get it.
The author is intensely researching all of these solutions but there are no interviews with students or families of the deceased or much personal connection established with the subject of concern, the students! As a high school teacher this blew my mind and yet seemed so typical of the bizarre way we treat teenagers- we fetishize them and treat them like incomprehensible aliens but they’re just growing people without fully developed frontal cortexes. They’re just like us but immature and with poor impulse control- they’re really not a different species. All this hypothesizing about what they’re thinking and why they did it- well surely some of them left notes or talked to friends or posted on social media some reasons why? Seems like that information would have been helpful.
It also was strange that he collected all of this information with the purported reason of stopping the suicides but didn’t seem to take any action or share his research with anyone except a teacher friend? Why not form or join some kind of community action group to share what you learned? Of course everything he learned was academic theory about how humans work and so much of it seemed to be the work of really emotionally detached people.
Speaking of emotionally detached- your school has 9 suicides and you just keep doing everything the same way? This seemed like a total indictment of the community- you just keep feeding your kids to this misery factory of stress despite the obvious toll? Obviously something is seriously wrong- The author basically spells it out- the competitive narcissistic culture of striving that makes people’s entire self worth the college they get into and how much money they make is shitty and abusive and pretty much everything that’s wrong with capitalism. But even though he clearly explains the issue he doesn’t really critique it. There’s kind of just a shrug like, oh well it sucks but that’s how we got Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. Both of whom are not well adjusted people BTW. I mean the author clearly opted out by moving away but he could have drawn more clear conclusions.
I’m glad that as a larger culture we’re starting to question the supremacy of Silcon Valley and expose its toxic effects but this book didn’t really go there which seems like missing the entire point.
not-interested
January 22, 2018https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/bo...
Christopher Chabris pans the book, but likes the idea:
"Research by sociologists, economists and psychologists has established that imitation and other mechanisms of social transmission cause norms, behaviors and moods to spread from person to person, without those people necessarily being aware of how they had been influenced or by whom. We are so susceptible to contagion that it must serve some positive purpose, but in our world many negative behaviors can also spread, such as eating disorders and cigarette smoking.
This is a fast-moving field full of interesting questions. Unfortunately, Kravetz attempts to weave the science into a poorly written narrative of his own reaction to the suicides, leaving the ideas and studies too vaguely rendered for readers to appreciate them."
Christopher Chabris pans the book, but likes the idea:
"Research by sociologists, economists and psychologists has established that imitation and other mechanisms of social transmission cause norms, behaviors and moods to spread from person to person, without those people necessarily being aware of how they had been influenced or by whom. We are so susceptible to contagion that it must serve some positive purpose, but in our world many negative behaviors can also spread, such as eating disorders and cigarette smoking.
This is a fast-moving field full of interesting questions. Unfortunately, Kravetz attempts to weave the science into a poorly written narrative of his own reaction to the suicides, leaving the ideas and studies too vaguely rendered for readers to appreciate them."
October 2, 2017
DNF. Gave up at p.164.
July 7, 2019
The author wrote a lot of words yet came to no conclusions or found any solutions.
July 27, 2025
The author ranges far and wide in a quest to understand the underlying causes and possible cures for two suicide clusters in Palo Alto. The resulting book offers a meandering, intriguing journey, with plenty to spark readers' self-exploration and questions. It is a book as much about external events as it is about our internal makeup, about how we respond to external cues and events and to the internal workings of our minds and emotions. It reminds us that cultivating happiness, resilience, and compassion won't protect us from tragedy, but will help us move through dark times and come out the other side of them stronger and more connected to our communities.
Here is the author summarizing research on the effects of happiness on people exposed to it:
“When I met with Nicholas Christakis, he spoke about his work with James Fowler at UC San Diego and their findings on the collective phenomenon of happiness, based on their twenty-year longitudinal study published in 2008. Emotions, they learned, move across social networks, and happiness is its own vivacious affliction. Happiness is more easily understood than any of the 6,000 spoken languages around the world. A happy next-door neighbor increases our chances of being happy ourselves by 34 percent. Every happy individual in one's social network increases a person's chances of catching happiness by 9 percent.
“Happiness by proximity is also a panacea for depression. The biggest difference between the contagions of depression and happiness is that this hovering and deep
feeling of sadness comes with its own built-in mechanism that limits
spread. Unlike happiness, depression tends to make people isolate themselves and
disengage from social networks. If you're not around others, you're less likely
to spread your temperament. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
to Adult Health looked at 2,000 US high school students and determined that
having five or more friends with a healthy and happy mood can halve the probability
of developing depression and double the probability of recovering from depression
over a six- to twelve-month period. Having depressed friends puts people at risk for catching clinical depression, while having happy friends is apparently both protective and curative."
“But what I find most fascinating is that happiness spreads by up to three degrees of separation. Like goals and greed, we can catch happiness from people without even realizing it and from sources we have yet to come face-to-face with. A happy Patient Zero has a 25 percent chance of passing happiness to the person next to her; she has a roughly 10 percent chance of passing happiness to her friend; and from there, her friend has nearly a 6 percent increased chance of passing happiness to another.”
The author began the book searching for a cure for the strange contagion that seemed to be pushing outwardly successful, happy young people to commit suicide in Palo Alto. By the end, he acknowledges that a cure isn’t necessarily what we should be aiming for. We can’t prevent all tragedies or shield ourselves from them. There is no vaccine against modern life. But we can develop strategies to deal with situations that have become part of our new normal, even though that “normal” now includes terrible, commonplace things like school shootings, massive wildfires, war and terrorist acts.
Here is the author summarizing research on the effects of happiness on people exposed to it:
“When I met with Nicholas Christakis, he spoke about his work with James Fowler at UC San Diego and their findings on the collective phenomenon of happiness, based on their twenty-year longitudinal study published in 2008. Emotions, they learned, move across social networks, and happiness is its own vivacious affliction. Happiness is more easily understood than any of the 6,000 spoken languages around the world. A happy next-door neighbor increases our chances of being happy ourselves by 34 percent. Every happy individual in one's social network increases a person's chances of catching happiness by 9 percent.
“Happiness by proximity is also a panacea for depression. The biggest difference between the contagions of depression and happiness is that this hovering and deep
feeling of sadness comes with its own built-in mechanism that limits
spread. Unlike happiness, depression tends to make people isolate themselves and
disengage from social networks. If you're not around others, you're less likely
to spread your temperament. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
to Adult Health looked at 2,000 US high school students and determined that
having five or more friends with a healthy and happy mood can halve the probability
of developing depression and double the probability of recovering from depression
over a six- to twelve-month period. Having depressed friends puts people at risk for catching clinical depression, while having happy friends is apparently both protective and curative."
“But what I find most fascinating is that happiness spreads by up to three degrees of separation. Like goals and greed, we can catch happiness from people without even realizing it and from sources we have yet to come face-to-face with. A happy Patient Zero has a 25 percent chance of passing happiness to the person next to her; she has a roughly 10 percent chance of passing happiness to her friend; and from there, her friend has nearly a 6 percent increased chance of passing happiness to another.”
The author began the book searching for a cure for the strange contagion that seemed to be pushing outwardly successful, happy young people to commit suicide in Palo Alto. By the end, he acknowledges that a cure isn’t necessarily what we should be aiming for. We can’t prevent all tragedies or shield ourselves from them. There is no vaccine against modern life. But we can develop strategies to deal with situations that have become part of our new normal, even though that “normal” now includes terrible, commonplace things like school shootings, massive wildfires, war and terrorist acts.
April 11, 2018
I picked this up because it sounded interesting! Strange Contagion is about how emotions and behaviours can spread, which is definitely not something that I thought about before.
Strange Contagion starts when Lee Daniel Kravetz moves to Palo Alto and a student from the local high school jumps in front of a train. That’s sad, but what’s scary is that students from that school started to jump/tried to jump after that trigger incident, prompting him to look into why this was happening.
To be honest the whole suicide being catching thing reminds me a lot of the film Suicide Club, but this book is nonfiction and makes a lot more sense. The author goes to talk with the leading experts in this field and takes us along with him, allowing us to learn that:
- We mirror people unconsciously
- We can catch both positive and negative behaviours and emotions
- Leaders matter. They will impact how people feel.
- On a related note, one toxic coworker can bring down an entire workplace
- We can get primed to do things: this basically means we can pick up the goals of someone else and we’ll end up thinking we thought of the goal ourselves
- While behaviours do spread like bacteria, it’s possible to interrupt the spread by training people to recognise and stop the behaviour. That’s how the Cure Violence model managed to reduce killings by 56% and shootings by 44% in Baltimore (among other success stories)
- When we ruminate, we continue to ‘infect’ ourselves
- Training ourselves to have a nuanced understanding of emotions can help us lead more emotionally healthier lives (like the other book I read!)
- We may be able to reach a ‘resistance point’ for negative viral emotions and behaviours, but eradication is unlikely.
- Community is both the cure and the means of spread.
All in all, I thought this was a very good read. I didn’t quite realise how much of an effect I could have on others, or that others could have on me. So now that I know, I have one more ‘tool’ I could use to make sense of my emotions when they threaten to overcome me.
The only thing I wish the book would add would be a summary chapter. We basically follow the author through his journey and pick up the information at the same time as him. That made it a little harder to put things together (things didn’t really merge into a whole until I started writing down the points I bookmarked), so a chapter summarising everything would have helped a lot.
I think you’d be interested in this book if you want to know more about human behaviour and what affects it. It doesn’t provide all the answers, but it is an interesting look into how we can ‘catch’ feelings and behaviours from the people around us.
This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
Strange Contagion starts when Lee Daniel Kravetz moves to Palo Alto and a student from the local high school jumps in front of a train. That’s sad, but what’s scary is that students from that school started to jump/tried to jump after that trigger incident, prompting him to look into why this was happening.
To be honest the whole suicide being catching thing reminds me a lot of the film Suicide Club, but this book is nonfiction and makes a lot more sense. The author goes to talk with the leading experts in this field and takes us along with him, allowing us to learn that:
- We mirror people unconsciously
- We can catch both positive and negative behaviours and emotions
- Leaders matter. They will impact how people feel.
- On a related note, one toxic coworker can bring down an entire workplace
- We can get primed to do things: this basically means we can pick up the goals of someone else and we’ll end up thinking we thought of the goal ourselves
- While behaviours do spread like bacteria, it’s possible to interrupt the spread by training people to recognise and stop the behaviour. That’s how the Cure Violence model managed to reduce killings by 56% and shootings by 44% in Baltimore (among other success stories)
- When we ruminate, we continue to ‘infect’ ourselves
- Training ourselves to have a nuanced understanding of emotions can help us lead more emotionally healthier lives (like the other book I read!)
- We may be able to reach a ‘resistance point’ for negative viral emotions and behaviours, but eradication is unlikely.
- Community is both the cure and the means of spread.
All in all, I thought this was a very good read. I didn’t quite realise how much of an effect I could have on others, or that others could have on me. So now that I know, I have one more ‘tool’ I could use to make sense of my emotions when they threaten to overcome me.
The only thing I wish the book would add would be a summary chapter. We basically follow the author through his journey and pick up the information at the same time as him. That made it a little harder to put things together (things didn’t really merge into a whole until I started writing down the points I bookmarked), so a chapter summarising everything would have helped a lot.
I think you’d be interested in this book if you want to know more about human behaviour and what affects it. It doesn’t provide all the answers, but it is an interesting look into how we can ‘catch’ feelings and behaviours from the people around us.
This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
July 24, 2017
Several students from Henry M. Gunn High School at Palo Alto committed suicide. These unexpected and tragic events were the catalyst for Lee Daniel Kravetz to write Strange Contagion. Moreover, Kravetz was affected by these circumstances as he used to live in this community, and considered the future safety of his own children.
Kravetz investigated about social contagion, a term used by the French social psychologist Le Bon (1895) to describe a specific form of social influence.1 Furthermore, a mass contagion, an unconscious process, provoked through the influence of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors within a group.
The author covered social contagion from different perspectives and addresses topics such as suicide, bulimia, anorexia, and violence propelled by fear, stress or the media, for example, in an attempt to explain what was going on with the students at Palo Alto. His research approached several professionals studying these topics looking for answers and solutions.
Even though, the book’s narrative makes this research seems a fiction’s story, unfortunately, it’s not. Occasionally, the narrative falls short, for instance, in passages describing how they were packing their belongings to move, adding nothing to the story.
Kravetz presents his research and includes his opinions, sometimes as facts, nevertheless, they are just his point of view; for example, considering pro-democratic movement in Libya a success that provoked elections after six decades of dictatorship, meanwhile, BBC’s research shows Libya’s situation as chaotic.
Strange Contagion reflects Kravetz’s research insights and contradictions, but not clear answers, there still more research to do. For the moment, people are working with protocols to deal with these events the best they can with the knowledge experts have right now. Moreover, I agree with Kravetz to get the cause to eradicate such maladies as I had a family member that committed suicide, sadly.
Kravetz investigated about social contagion, a term used by the French social psychologist Le Bon (1895) to describe a specific form of social influence.1 Furthermore, a mass contagion, an unconscious process, provoked through the influence of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors within a group.
The author covered social contagion from different perspectives and addresses topics such as suicide, bulimia, anorexia, and violence propelled by fear, stress or the media, for example, in an attempt to explain what was going on with the students at Palo Alto. His research approached several professionals studying these topics looking for answers and solutions.
Even though, the book’s narrative makes this research seems a fiction’s story, unfortunately, it’s not. Occasionally, the narrative falls short, for instance, in passages describing how they were packing their belongings to move, adding nothing to the story.
Kravetz presents his research and includes his opinions, sometimes as facts, nevertheless, they are just his point of view; for example, considering pro-democratic movement in Libya a success that provoked elections after six decades of dictatorship, meanwhile, BBC’s research shows Libya’s situation as chaotic.
Strange Contagion reflects Kravetz’s research insights and contradictions, but not clear answers, there still more research to do. For the moment, people are working with protocols to deal with these events the best they can with the knowledge experts have right now. Moreover, I agree with Kravetz to get the cause to eradicate such maladies as I had a family member that committed suicide, sadly.
July 6, 2017
This is only part of the review for the rest go to Readaholic Zone!
I am sure you are familiar with this situation; you have met some friends at a coffee shop and the person at the next table is having a loud irate conversation on their cell. What happens next? You start getting frustrated and the more it goes on, the more irritated you and your friends get until this one individual has drained all the fun from your gathering. That readers is social contagion.
Social Contagion has to be one of the most beneficial books I have read hence giving me a better understanding of the influences either consciously or subconsciously influencing my mental well being from the people that surround me including the magnitude of media bombardment from television to the internet. When I began reading this book I could not believe that none of these concepts of social contagion never crossed my mind before, especially the most common ones for instance “happiness connects people by up to three degrees of separation, and that a sad acquaintance doubles our chances of becoming unhappy ourselves.”
The book's plot starts off with the cluster of suicides but that is just a stepping stone for Kravetz’s investigation into social contagions which fills the book with fascinating information and statistics. Unquestionably the deluge of information bursting from the pages is mind blowing here are a few simple examples:
For the examples and the rest of the review please go to the link above. Thank you!
I am sure you are familiar with this situation; you have met some friends at a coffee shop and the person at the next table is having a loud irate conversation on their cell. What happens next? You start getting frustrated and the more it goes on, the more irritated you and your friends get until this one individual has drained all the fun from your gathering. That readers is social contagion.
Social Contagion has to be one of the most beneficial books I have read hence giving me a better understanding of the influences either consciously or subconsciously influencing my mental well being from the people that surround me including the magnitude of media bombardment from television to the internet. When I began reading this book I could not believe that none of these concepts of social contagion never crossed my mind before, especially the most common ones for instance “happiness connects people by up to three degrees of separation, and that a sad acquaintance doubles our chances of becoming unhappy ourselves.”
The book's plot starts off with the cluster of suicides but that is just a stepping stone for Kravetz’s investigation into social contagions which fills the book with fascinating information and statistics. Unquestionably the deluge of information bursting from the pages is mind blowing here are a few simple examples:
For the examples and the rest of the review please go to the link above. Thank you!
September 19, 2022
In 2009, the city of Palo Alto was rocked by an unusual series of teenage suicides. Then, in 2014, it happened again. The 10-year suicide rate for the area suddenly became between four and five times the national average. Kravetz, a journalist as well as a concerned resident of Palo Alto, decides to dig into how human acts, emotions and behaviors become contagious.
Though not riveting, this book gives the reader a lot to think about, beyond the scope of the Palo Alto suicides, with respect to human psychology, which never fails to be weird and fascinating. It was eye-opening to think of eating disorders and violence as contagious on a subconscious level, as well as the idea of different locations having varying tolerance levels toward violence in their communities, and troubling to consider that what is needed for a community or individual to cope/heal/process (awareness campaigns, support groups, etc.) is in itself simultaneously a spreader of contagion. I experienced a sudden jolt of panic when it finally clicked, a rather embarrassing three quarters of the way through the book, that I too am sending my child to a highly-ranked, potentially high-pressure school, which was certainly food for thought. I'm somewhat surprised that this tragic series of events had never been in my awareness before now, and I naturally became curious about what may have transpired in Palo Alto since the book's publication — thankfully, it seems not much. Nevertheless, I think my next book will have to be a somewhat light-hearted pick-me-up.
Though not riveting, this book gives the reader a lot to think about, beyond the scope of the Palo Alto suicides, with respect to human psychology, which never fails to be weird and fascinating. It was eye-opening to think of eating disorders and violence as contagious on a subconscious level, as well as the idea of different locations having varying tolerance levels toward violence in their communities, and troubling to consider that what is needed for a community or individual to cope/heal/process (awareness campaigns, support groups, etc.) is in itself simultaneously a spreader of contagion. I experienced a sudden jolt of panic when it finally clicked, a rather embarrassing three quarters of the way through the book, that I too am sending my child to a highly-ranked, potentially high-pressure school, which was certainly food for thought. I'm somewhat surprised that this tragic series of events had never been in my awareness before now, and I naturally became curious about what may have transpired in Palo Alto since the book's publication — thankfully, it seems not much. Nevertheless, I think my next book will have to be a somewhat light-hearted pick-me-up.
June 16, 2017
Kravetz deftly weaves expert scientific analysis of the frightening epidemic of teen suicide with an urgent and more personal question of his own. Should he and his wife raise their children in the epicenter of this tragic trend in Silicon Valley where they might "catch" self-destructive behavior from others as they grow up? The resulting mix makes for a fascinating book that gives us insight instead of magical thinking, hope where there was once only despair. "Strange Contagion" is one of the most important books to come out this year.
May 11, 2018
I expected this book to be more generally about viral emotions and mass hysteria, but it was rather specifically about a cluster of suicides in California. I feel like the subtitle of this book misled me.
It was still interesting, but it wasn't quite the narrative I signed up for. In fact, I didn't expect a particular overarching narrative of the author trying to work out what caused the suicide cluster and how it might be stopped. I was expecting several distinct stories and lots of underlying science and whatnot. And I got some of that, but.. not enough to satisfy me.
It was still interesting, but it wasn't quite the narrative I signed up for. In fact, I didn't expect a particular overarching narrative of the author trying to work out what caused the suicide cluster and how it might be stopped. I was expecting several distinct stories and lots of underlying science and whatnot. And I got some of that, but.. not enough to satisfy me.
March 21, 2021
The most common criticism I see of Kravetz' work is that it lacks a conclusion, that is, a proven solution that lacks fail to social contagion and in particular, the suicide clusters of Palo Alto teens and young adults.
However, this is a problem with no solution other than to learn that social contagion is a problem in the first place. I appreciate Kravetz' bravery in admitting that he does not know the answers. I appreciate his look into the lives of those affected and being appropriately both scientific and emotionally available.
However, this is a problem with no solution other than to learn that social contagion is a problem in the first place. I appreciate Kravetz' bravery in admitting that he does not know the answers. I appreciate his look into the lives of those affected and being appropriately both scientific and emotionally available.
January 1, 2018
Why are high students committing suicide by walking in front of a moving train? Kravetz explains the paradox of 'social contagion' and how the knowledge of the actions of others influences people to do the same, no matter how damaging and detrimental those actions may be for themselves and society.
October 20, 2017
I found this study of the contagious nature of emotions fascinating. Anyone who has experienced the uplifting feeling of being in a positive crowd, whether at a sporting event, a concert, church, etc has experienced this. The author investigates how both positive and negative emotions spread, and how we as individuals can influence the mood of those around us, for better or for worse.
January 27, 2018
I never received my copy that I won in a GOODREADS giveaway back on May 15, 2018. I've reached out with no response. Sadly, I need to clear my reading queue & shall assign a 1 star rating. I was excited to have won & looked forward to reading. If I ever receive it, I'll read & post corrected review.
August 22, 2018
Light in detail and research on the actual topi and heavy on inordinate detail about the actual leg work he did to learn about this topic. Three paragraphs about the office of psychology researchers is just not necessary. Seemed more of an anxiety piece about living in Silicon Valley. Disappointing since I am witnessing social contagion frequently in my practice as a pediatrician.
May 31, 2021
I was really fascinated by the premise of this book, about how we catch emotions and behaviors from others. Kravetz interweaves his own experience, of moving to Palo Alto at the beginning of a suicide outbreak, with science about infectious behaviors. He also includes plenty of catching behaviors throughout history, ranging from laughter to bulimia.
July 11, 2021
Giữa mùa dịch đọc được một cuốn sách không thể thỏa mãn hơn. Vừa pha lẫn nghiên cứu với văn phong tự truyện/ hồi ký nên dễ đọc chứ không nặng nề như sách tâm lý/ giáo dục dù chủ đề là về SUICIDE. Điều tâm đắc nhất là mình học được từ khóa Lây Lan Xã Hội (Social Contagion), các thứ bệnh tâm lý/ tâm thần đang lây truyền trong cộng đồng mới là thứ đáng sợ hơn cả virus.
May 26, 2022
Riveting book written in a story teller style. The author dives deep into other, surprising contagions, including bulimia, hysterics, the 80s child care devil worship craze as well as positive contagions, like a telenova that caused a 9% increase in sewing machine sales in 18 countries. Spoiler alert. There isn't a straight forward answer to the problem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2022
Kravetz is an extremely smooth writer. His introductions to topics just flowed and I think he is making complicated subjects quite readable. The grief that was gripping Palo Alto is almost unimaginable as these young, promising people commit suicide in the same way. This book attempts to grapple with the community’s grief and to better understand the strange contagion.
February 13, 2020
想要确定处于歇斯底里边缘的任务非常容易，他们对生活充满恐惧，又极度渴望解除别人。——田纳西·威廉姆斯 我们发现整个社会群体突然把思维固定在一个目标上并开始疯狂地追求；数百万的人同时铭记并追求一个错觉，知道他们的注意力被某个更让人神魂颠倒的新的愚行所迷惑。——查尔斯·麦凯
Negative energy can be contagion, look at the anti-Chinese now due to the fear of COVID-19 outbreak.
This kind of irrational fear is contagious!
Negative energy can be contagion, look at the anti-Chinese now due to the fear of COVID-19 outbreak.
This kind of irrational fear is contagious!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews