Surprising Science of Infectious Behaviors and Viral Emotions

Lee Daniel Kravetz is a bestselling author.   He has written for print and television, including The New York Times, Psychology Today, The San Francisco Chronicle, and PBS.  In 2009, tragedy struck the town of Palo Alto: A student from the local high school had died by suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming train. A few weeks later, it happened again. And again. And again. In six months, the high school lost five students to suicide at those train tracks. Author Lee Kravetz’s purpose in writing his new book “Strange Contagion” was to explain how it was possible that a suicide cluster could develop in a community of concerned, aware, and hyper-vigilant adults. The answer is what Kravetz calls a “strange contagion:” a perfect storm of highly common social viruses that, combined, can form unconscious mirroring motivations triggered by our environment.