Skip to main content

Free UK delivery for orders £30

The Infectious Mind

How Social Contagion Makes Us Ill

The Infectious Mind cover

The Infectious Mind

How Social Contagion Makes Us Ill

Quantity
Pre-order. Available 28 Jan 2027
£18.00 RRP £20.00 Website price saving £2.00 (10%)

Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available

Description

THE INFECTIOUS MIND is a gripping investigation into one of the strangest frontiers of human behaviour: how physical and psychological symptoms can spread socially – like viruses.

From the dancing plagues of medieval Europe to the Pokémon episode that reportedly hospitalised several hundred, social contagion has shaped collective health and hysteria for centuries. Today, platforms like TikTok and YouTube are driving a new wave – from functional tics to dissociative identities – with symptoms that mimic those of others and spread at startling speed.

Drawing on history, neurology, psychology and culture, social scientist Matilda Gosling shows how our brains and bodies absorb the emotional currents around us, and how distress finds new forms of expression in each era. This is a book about why symptoms spread, why some become epidemics, and how we can protect ourselves in an age of mass connectedness.

Product details

Published 28 Jan 2027
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 352
ISBN 9781035924271
Imprint Apollo
Illustrations n/a
Dimensions 234 x 153 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Related Titles

Environment: ACC-Hukd Staging