The social contagion of gender dysphoria

The term social contagion describes the “spread of phenomena (e.g., behaviours, beliefs, and attitudes) across network ties”[1] (p. 556). Using very large datasets (e.g., Framingham Heart Study) that have collected longitudinal data on original participants (Original cohort), as well as their children (Offspring cohort) and their children’s children (Third generation cohort) and including their spouses, siblings, friends and neighbours, Christakis and Fowler have shown that social network effects, known as clustering, remain strong and can extend to those up to three degrees of separation from the original cohort. Such effects have been demonstrated across a large range of factors by different researchers using differing datasets. Examples include overweight/obesity, sleep patterns, smoking, alcohol abuse, alcohol abstention, marijuana use, loneliness, happiness, depression, cooperation, and divorce among others. Social contagion may apply to gender dysphoria and its rapid, epidemic-like spread across the Western world among adolescents and young people.

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