The Emergent Fool

Behavior and Emotions as Virus

Posted by Rafe Furst in Epidemiology, Infection, Invisible Etiology, Memes, Obesity on December 9th, 2008 | View Comments

We’ve talked about obesity as a virus and violence as a virus, both well-supported by the research. Now there’s happiness as a virus. Hardly a surprise, but I guess for new paradigms to become the accepted basis for organizing scientific thinking, they first have to become banal. So let’s bring it on, what’s the next human behavior or emotion that will be featured in a “surprising”study showing a viral etiology?

hat tip: Daniel Horowitz

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rafefurst

Yeah, here's another recent one for good measure:

"Depressed moms can raise their children’s risk for depression via nurture alone"
ben

I guess the upshot would be that "human behavior" is a virus, in that we all learn from (and to an extent, imitate) each other's behavior.

But the more studies of this nature we see, the less the term "virus" seems appropriate.