3 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Jonah Berger's 2013 book explaining the six principles (STEPPS) that make content, products, and ideas spread through social networks — Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, Stories — grounded in academic research rather than anecdote.
Abigail Shrier's 2020 argument — that the sharp increase in teenage girls identifying as transgender is a social contagion pattern enabled by social media and peer influence, and that medical transition in adolescents is being performed without adequate caution.
American marketing professor at Wharton who wrote Contagious: Why Things Catch On — the most cited popular book on viral marketing and social transmission — and Invisible Influence, The Catalyst, and Magic Words — studying why some products, ideas, and behaviors spread while others don't.