Social Contagion: You are who you spend your time with

“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” – Booker T. Washington.

Social contagion, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is “the spread of behavior, emotions, and attitude through the crowd, from one person to another.”

It is a well known fact that our behavior, our attitude, and even our emotions can spread really fast among the people around us. When a certain attitude, a certain behavior, becomes common amidst the society, it results in what is known as collective behavior, where that attitude or behavior transforms into a social norm or a social practice.

Social contagion is classified into two types: behavioral contagion and emotional contagion. Behavioral contagion is the tendency for people to repeat behavior after others have performed it, while emotional contagion refers to automatic adoption of an emotional state of another person.

From an Islamic perspective, the key to maintain good norms and social practices is not to suppress social contagion, but rather to utilize it in a favorable manner. If bad practices can spread through the society, so can good practices. Discussed below are the references for both behavioral as well as emotional contagion.

1. Speaking kindly to others

One of the biggest issues in today’s day and age is how rudely we speak to not only strangers but even to our close friends and family members as well. When you exhibit positive manner, your behavior spreads to the people you’re interacting with, as well as to the ones simply observing you from a distance. Not only this, good behavior increases the probability of people listening to you and trying to understand the message you wish to convey.

2. Being good towards one’s family

It is rather easier for us to display good behavior towards people outside our families, like colleagues, students, even strangers, but when it comes to our own family members, we usually take them for granted. The Prophet ﷺ advised us to be the best to our own family first.

3. Greeting with smile

You must have heard a famous saying that smile is contagious. Even in your own personal life, you can recall times when someone greeted you with a smile and you automatically smiled back. This is an example of emotional contagion. When you make others smile using this technique, it can make them forget the problems and worries, and uplift their mood as well.

It is worth noting that The Prophet ﷺ faced some of the worst things and some of the worst times in his lifetime, and yet, he was the most cheerful and smiling person in all of Arabia, which brings us to the next point.

4. Being thankful and grateful

It is often noted that in pursuit of something better or bigger, we forget what we already have, and hence we aren’t grateful enough. But if we start introspecting and being grateful for what we already have, it will affect and may even alter people’s attitude towards their own lives. When they are reminded that they have so much to be thankful for, they have a positive outlook, and even if they fail to achieve their desired goal(s), they’d be thankful remembering what they already possess.

Another important interpretation of this verse, as some scholars have pointed out, is that God doesn’t specify which favor(s) will He increase for us for being grateful. The scholars have commented that when God doesn’t specify a favor, He encompasses all the favors that can be in place. For example, if we are thankful for our money, He will increase it for us through various channels. If we are thankful for our knowledge, He will increase our knowledge, and maybe even in more that one field, so on and so forth.

In conclusion, we can say that social contagion is pretty much an inevitable part of our social life, and with social media it has only increased in its effect. Instead of trying to avoid the negative aspect of social contagion, we must evaluate the positive aspects of behavioral and emotional contagion, and use them to better our own lives, as well as the lives of those around us. It is also important that we spend time with people who have positive attitude and encouraging behavior towards others so we may be encouraged to do better in our professional as well personal lives.