Sociology Meets Epidemiology: Social Contagion Research in Search of Theoretical Basis

Contemporary sociology pays more and more attention to the study of the processes of copying, imitation, and “viral” spread. Digital methods and abundant digital data have made it possible to study “social contagion” processes that were previously inaccessible to study. The “social contagion” means that sociocultural phenomena can spread in society like infectious diseases. Despite a variety of social contagion definitions, there is still no developed social theory of this phenomenon. However, the need to conceptualize the social contagion phenomenon is becoming increasingly tangible, since the conceptual framework of social contagion is increasingly used in empirical research and claims to be the optics through which the social reality of the digital society can be viewed. The article looks into some main areas of social contagion research in an attempt to reconstruct the contours of the theoretical model underlying such studies and to outline the ways of possible conceptualization of this phenomenon.