Suchergebnisse

Individual judgments, feelings, and behaviors can spread from person to person in social networks, similarly to the propagation of infectious diseases. Despite major implications for many social phenomena, the underlying social-contagion processes are poorly understood. We examined how participants' perceptual judgments spread from one person to another and across diffusion chains. We gauged the speed, reach, and scale of social contagion. Judgment propagation tended to slow down with increasing social distance from the source. Crucially, it vanished beyond a social horizon of three to four people. These results advance the understanding of some of the mechanisms underlying social-contagion phenomena as well as their scope across domains as diverse as political mobilization, health practices, and emotions.