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Social contagion hypothesis

Social contagion is a general concept in the social sciences in which behaviour, ideas or emotions spread within friendship groups or online networks.

The hypothesis

Social contagion is a general concept in the social sciences in which behaviour, ideas or emotions spread within friendship groups or online networks. In the gender context the concept was applied by Littman (2018), among others, to describe the cluster-presentation and the online context of adolescent gender dysphoria.

Discussion

Opponents of the hypothesis argue that rising referrals can be explained by broader social acceptance and better access to care. Proponents point to the pattern of clustered referrals within friendship groups, the age and sex distribution of the rise and international parallels.

Policy relevance

The Cass Review and the Scandinavian reorientations explicitly include social influence as a factor in explaining the changed patient population. Policy therefore also focuses on careful differentiation and exploratory conversation.