What social contagion means

Social contagion is the spread of behaviours, emotions, beliefs or symptoms from person to person through a social network. It does not work like a virus. It works through imitation, belonging, shared explanations and social reward, and it is strongest where people are close, uncertain about themselves and looking to each other for cues. Adolescence is a period in which all of these are at their peak.

Researchers use several overlapping terms:

• Behavioural contagion: one person's behaviour lowers the threshold for others to do the same (yawning is the simplest example; smoking, drinking and risk-taking are more serious ones).
• Peer influence: the norms, approval and disapproval of a friend group shape what members do and how they see themselves.
• Social learning: people learn what a feeling means, and what to do about it, by watching others.
• Clustering: a behaviour or condition shows up in friendship groups, schools or online communities at rates far higher than in the surrounding population.

Clustering on its own does not prove contagion. People also choose friends who are already similar to them (homophily), and friends share the same environment. A famous network study suggested obesity spread through friendships over 32 years (Christakis & Fowler 2007), and economists then showed that much of that pattern could be explained by shared surroundings rather than person-to-person spread (Cohen-Cole & Fletcher 2008). This "selection versus influence" problem sits at the heart of the debate about gender identity, and it is worth keeping in mind through the rest of this page.

This page is the hub for the social contagion and peer influence section of the wiki. The four pages below go deeper into specific parts of the question; this page sets out the concept, the evidence on both sides, the proposed mechanisms and what detransitioners describe.

Documented examples of contagion

Contagion is not a fringe idea invented for the gender debate. Psychiatry has long recognised that some forms of distress spread socially, especially among adolescent girls, and that the form distress takes is shaped by what is available in the culture at the time.

Eating disorders

Clinicians have described anorexia spreading within schools, treatment wards and online "pro-ana" communities, where restrictive eating becomes competitive and is reinforced by the group. Allison and colleagues argued that anorexia should be understood partly through a social-contagion lens, with clinical implications for how patients are grouped and treated (Allison et al. 2014). Crucially, nobody treats an anorexic patient's distress as fake, and nobody treats it by helping them become thinner.

Self-harm

A review of non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents and young adults concluded that social contagion is an under-studied risk factor and recommended psychoeducation in schools, colleges and treatment programmes to reduce it (Jarvi et al. 2013). Self-harm often appears in clusters within friendship groups and online communities, and some young people learn the behaviour from peers before they ever experience the urge.

Mass psychogenic illness and the TikTok tics

The clearest modern parallel is the wave of sudden functional tic-like behaviours in 2020-21. Neurologists in several countries saw a surge of teenagers and young adults, many of them female, presenting with complex movements and vocalisations that did not match Tourette syndrome. German researchers traced many cases to a single YouTube channel and described the outbreak as a new kind of mass sociogenic illness spread through social media (Müller-Vahl et al. 2022). In a follow-up of 32 patients, nearly all had other psychiatric symptoms, about half had been bullied, and the authors identified pre-existing social difficulties, anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive symptoms as predisposing factors (Fremer et al. 2022).

The tic outbreak matters for this debate because it shows the mechanism in an uncontested setting: real, involuntary, distressing symptoms; onset in adolescence; a female skew; high rates of pre-existing mental health problems; and transmission through online video rather than physical contact.

One detransitioned woman, who identified as trans for nearly two decades, made this point directly:

Gender dysphoria is real and socially contagious at the same time. It's really important to note that socially contagious does not at all mean fake! People with gender dysphoria are genuinely experiencing extreme distress. Suicidality and anorexia are also socially contagious while being completely real. —butterflyfault, detrans female

Why the term is contested

Applying "social contagion" to gender identity is one of the most heated arguments in the field. The objections fall into three groups:

• The word itself. "Contagion" evokes disease. Critics hear it as saying trans identities are an infection to be contained, and fear it will be used to justify restricting information or support.
• The alternative explanation. Many trans commenters argue that clustering reflects safety and recognition: young people who already feel different find each other, and seeing a friend come out gives words to feelings they already had. On this view, rising numbers reflect reduced stigma, not new cases.
• The quality of the evidence. The original research was based on parent reports recruited from websites sceptical of youth transition (see below).

Supporters of the hypothesis reply that none of these objections are made when contagion is discussed for eating disorders or tics; that "it is easier to come out now" does not explain the speed of the rise or the shift from young boys to teenage girls; and that a framework which rules out social influence in advance cannot tell apart a young person with lasting dysphoria from one who has absorbed a group's explanation for ordinary adolescent distress.

Some detransitioners also find the popular image of "contagion" too shallow, because it suggests a fashion rather than a cultural explanation for pain:

When people talk about "social contagion" they imagine it as some kind of trendy thing that kids are getting into because it's cool. In reality, trans ideology has become so pervasive in our society that "You're trans" has become a catchall diagnosis for anyone who has distress about their gender for any reason. —butchpeace, detrans female

The evidence

Friendship clusters: Littman 2018

The term rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) comes from a survey of 256 parents who reported that their adolescent or young adult child had announced a trans identity suddenly, without signs in childhood. According to the parents, 86.7% of the young people had increased their social media use, had friends who became trans-identified in a similar timeframe, or both, and in 36.8% of the friend groups described, the majority of members became trans-identified (Littman 2018). Littman noted that this was dozens of times higher than the expected population rate at the time.

After a post-publication review, PLOS ONE republished the paper in 2019 with a rewritten framing that stressed it was a study of parental observations, but with essentially unchanged results. It was corrected, not retracted. The full history and the methodological critiques are covered on the rapid-onset gender dysphoria page.

What detransitioner surveys report

Two later surveys asked people who had stopped identifying as trans. Among 100 detransitioners, participants described peers, social media and online communities as related to their dysphoria and wish to transition: YouTube videos (48%), blogs (46%) and Tumblr (45%) were the most commonly named online influences, and 20% felt pressured to transition by friends, partners or clinicians (Littman 2021).

Among 78 young adults who had stopped identifying as trans, fewer than 17% met diagnostic criteria for childhood gender dysphoria, and 53% said the ROGD description applied to them. The most common reason given for having identified as trans was mistaking mental health problems or trauma reactions for gender dysphoria. Notably, the reasons participants gave for detransitioning were mostly internal, such as their own thinking changing, rather than outside pressure (Littman et al. 2024). Both samples were recruited online, largely from detransition communities, so they show that this pathway exists, not how common it is.

Studies that challenge the hypothesis

Bauer et al. 2022. Using data from 173 adolescents at Canadian gender clinics, researchers found no link between "recent gender knowledge" and mental health problems, lack of parental support or other factors predicted by ROGD, and concluded their data did not support the hypothesis (Bauer et al. 2022). In a published letter, Littman replied that the study's measure (when a young person realised their gender was "different") did not capture pubertal onset, the defining feature of ROGD; another letter noted that only 24 participants (14%) fell into the "recent" group (Sinai 2022).

Turban et al. 2022. A study in Pediatrics by Jack Turban and colleagues used the US Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 16 states. In 2017, 2.4% of 91,937 students identified as transgender or gender diverse, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.5:1; in 2019, 1.6% of 105,437 did, with a ratio of 1.2:1. The authors argued that, since natal females did not outnumber natal males, the idea that girls are especially susceptible to social contagion was not supported (Turban et al. 2022). Critics pointed out that the survey's "sex" question may have been answered with gender identity by some trans-identified students, that the study's own numbers showed identification falling, and that clinic data in the US and elsewhere show the opposite sex ratio (Singal 2022).

Neither study tracked friendship groups over time, so neither can directly confirm or rule out peer influence. A 2024 review of the rapid-onset hypothesis concluded that the evidence for a distinct ROGD subtype remains thin, while noting that peer and social media influence among adolescent natal females with psychiatric problems still warrants research (Leonhardt et al. 2024).

Clinic and population data

Whatever the cause, the change in who presents to services is well documented. In English primary care, recorded gender dysphoria among under-18s rose from 0.16 to 8.3 per 10,000 between 2011 and 2021, with the rise most pronounced in natal females after 2014. Over half (52.7%) had records of anxiety, depression or self-harm (Jarvis et al. 2025). The demographic shift page covers this in detail.

The Cass Review found no single explanation for the rise. It concluded that the speed of the change was hard to explain by greater acceptance alone, described peer influence in adolescence as very powerful, and listed online exposure, social media and peer dynamics among the plausible contributing factors, while acknowledging that "social contagion" is the most hotly contested of them (Cass 2024).

Mechanisms: how influence might work

If peer influence plays a role for some young people, it is unlikely to be one thing. Detransitioners' accounts and the wider contagion literature point to several overlapping mechanisms.

Belonging and the outsider group

For a young person who does not fit in, a trans-identified friend group can offer instant acceptance, a shared language and a clear role. In many detransitioners' accounts, the group came first and the identity followed. One woman described being taken in by "the outsiders" as an awkward girl and feeling she could not be the straight girl she later realised she was:

pressure from peers and social bubbles to not be cishet. Obviously a lot of the lgbt world can be very accepting and open but... there can also be a lot of judgement. As a tween most of my friends were gay if not trans, and I definitely felt like... ya know like I "couldn't" be a straight girl —mountain-flowers, detrans female

Status, specialness and approval

Within some groups, coming out brings praise, attention and moral standing. Being called brave is powerful for someone who has felt invisible. Several commenters compare it to a drug, and describe how the approval made it harder to step back:

Because I'm cis. Not gay, no AGP, I just wanted to fit in with my mostly-female friend group as they all started "coming out" in 9th grade. The type of overwhelming support and pride they offer is like a drug to someone who is otherwise struggling socially. —RowanFinley512, detrans male

Identity as an explanation for distress

A trans identity can make sense of many different discomforts at once: not fitting in with one's own sex, body dislike, envy of the opposite sex, same-sex attraction, trauma. This is why the gender-as-explanatory-framework idea recurs in detransition stories. Peers do not have to push anyone; they only have to model a single explanation that seems to fit everything.

Being trans can be used to explain a host of things like being discontent with your body, not fitting in with the same sex, or feeling envious of the opposite sex. It can also feel novel and freeing, especially for young people or older adults, to reinvent your personality and image in a radical way. —Thin_Entertainment14, detrans female

Co-rumination and the symptom pool

Co-rumination is the repeated discussion of problems within a friendship, dwelling on negative feelings. It is linked to close friendships but also to depression and anxiety, and girls do it more than boys (Rose 2002). When a group's shared problem-talk centres on dysphoria, bodies and identity, those feelings can be rehearsed and intensified. Psychiatrists describe a cultural symptom pool: the set of recognised ways to express distress at a given time. Tics, eating disorders and gender distress can all be drawn from it.

Online immersion and "egg" culture

Online, the friend group is replaced by an endless feed, forums and Discord servers. Communities that treat any gender non-conformity as a sign of being an "egg" (a trans person who doesn't know it yet) supply a ready interpretation for doubt; see egg cracking. One woman described how little exposure it took:

One time I watched one VIDEO, a trans timeline that was like 3-5 minutes long, and it was enough to make me question if I was trans for weeks. This ideology is like a drug to insecure teenagers, and especially girls as I'm a girl and can really only speak for girls, although I see it a ton in guys now too. —Busy_Ice3392, desisted female

Reinforcement from both directions

Peer approval and family opposition can push in the same direction. Resistance from parents can make an identity feel like a stand for authenticity, while affirmation from friends rewards it. Age matters too: one woman who waited until her mid-twenties still felt the pull.

getting pushback from my parents mae me want to transition even more. On the flip side, being affirmed by my peers also made me want to transition more. … even at that age, the positive reinforcement by peers as someone with low self esteem was super motivating in getting on with transition. —furbysaysburnthings, detrans female

What detransitioners describe

Women's accounts

Accounts from detransitioned and desisted women often describe whole friend groups identifying as trans or non-binary within a short period, frequently in middle or high school, and a social world in which being an ordinary straight girl felt like the least acceptable option. Some describe being the first in their group and later feeling responsible. Others describe how obvious the peer influence looks only with distance:

once you're done and have time and space from that time in life it does become excruciatingly obvious how easy we were to take others' opinions of who we were and become what people said we were. —furbysaidburnthings, detrans female

Men's accounts

Men's accounts are less often about school friend groups and more often about online communities, gaming servers and individual friends who insisted they were trans. One man described leaving a social circle and the dysphoria lifting with it:

I was also being manipulated by my trans man "friend" who was convinced I was also trans. "You're trans and just in denial; transition is the only way forward; your happiness is more important than children that'll never exist anyway." … After cutting him out of my life and leaving a related social group, I have felt no more dysphoria and have been so full of joy as a man. —MinnesotaGraywolf, desisted male

Another man, who had been the first in his group to come out, described what followed:

i was one of the "true trans" and came out first. before long, my whole friend group adopted the trans identity. a few years later they all desisted, although it took longer for me (i was the only one that went as far as taking HRT). —bradx220, detrans male

I noticed in an online community I used to be a part of there would be almost one person coming out as MtF every month. This is a fairly small community mind you, which also had a very left wing focus. I think genuine dysphorics do exist but there's no way they're as prevalent as they seem to be, especially in certain circles. —PandaFoo1, desisted male

The cost of leaving

If belonging is part of what draws someone in, losing it is part of what makes leaving hard. Several commenters describe losing an entire friend group after stopping identifying as trans or questioning gender ideas. This is covered on the echo chambers and backlash against detransitioners pages.

Figures from the detrans.ai statistics

The site's statistics are built from about 3,094 public r/detrans stories. An AI model assembles each user's posts into a narrative and scores it against around 100 statements; a feature is counted only when the model is at least 80% confident. These figures are therefore conservative (many stories were rated "uncertain" rather than yes), may contain extraction errors, and describe a self-selected group of people who post on r/detrans, not everyone who transitions.

The model also estimates each person's main online platform. Reddit dominates (about 23%), which is unsurprising for a Reddit-derived sample, and about 43% of stories name no platform. YouTube (about 7%) and Tumblr (about 5%) follow, with Tumblr much more common in women's stories (about 6%) than men's (under 2%); TikTok appears in under 2%, likely because most of these users transitioned before TikTok's rise (detrans.ai stats).

Two things stand out. First, explicit peer or online influence is described in a minority of these stories, so it is better seen as one factor among many (mental health, trauma, sexuality, misogyny, autism) than as a single cause. Second, the figures for men and women are closer than public debate assumes: peer and social pressure appear in men's stories at nearly the same rate.

Trans perspectives

Many trans commenters reject the contagion framing. Common arguments are that trans people have existed in places and eras with no trans community to copy, that greater visibility helps people recognise feelings they already had, and that "contagion" talk is used to justify hiding information from young people. One trans woman put the objection bluntly:

The concept of queer social contagion ("brainwashing") has emphatically been dismissed by scientific literature. Also note: Trans ppl have cropped up throughout history with no exposure to an existing trans community. —mallowyukari, trans woman (MTF)

At the same time, trans commenters often describe exactly the social pathway the hypothesis points to, interpreting it as discovery rather than influence:

Nah I was clueless about myself for a long time. Honestly if I never had trans friends that I felt comfortable talking about gender with, it probably would have taken me many more years to put the pieces together. —MayMeadow, trans woman (MTF)

The two readings, "my friends helped me see who I was" and "my friends gave me an explanation that turned out to be wrong", describe the same sequence of events from different endpoints. Detransitioners often told the first story at the time and the second one later. For people who remain content in their identity, that is their own matter; the concern this site raises is about permanent medical steps taken while a young person is still inside the group's explanation.

Pages in this section

What the evidence cannot tell us

No study has yet followed friendship groups forward in time to see whether trans identification spreads within them, and how often identities adopted this way last. The evidence on both sides is indirect:

• Parent reports (Littman 2018) show what parents saw, not what their children experienced.
• Detransitioner surveys (Littman 2021, Littman et al. 2024) and the site's own statistics show that peer and online influence are part of some people's stories, but cannot measure how common that pathway is among everyone who identifies as trans.
• Clinic and school surveys (Bauer 2022, Turban 2022) were not designed to observe peer clusters and used measures that critics argue miss the point of the hypothesis.
• Population data (Jarvis 2025, Cass 2024) show a large and rapid change in who presents for care, but cannot by themselves show why.

The balanced reading is that social contagion is a well-established phenomenon in adolescent psychology, that the conditions for it are present in many young people's social and online lives, and that many detransitioners describe it in their own histories. It has not been shown to explain the rise in trans identification as a whole. That uncertainty is itself a reason for careful, exploratory assessment before any irreversible step, and for being wary of any group, online or offline, that offers one explanation for every kind of distress. Support for people questioning a trans identity is listed in the support directory, and first-hand video accounts are in the video archive.

Related pages

• Communities overview
• Cult accusations
• Egg cracking
• Gender as an explanatory framework
• Mental health and trans identification
• Internalised misogyny
• Social transition
• Study archive

References

• Allison, S., Warin, M. & Bastiampillai, T. (2014). Anorexia nervosa and social contagion: clinical implications. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 48(2): 116-120. source
• Bauer, G. R., Lawson, M. L. & Metzger, D. L. (2022). Do clinical data from transgender adolescents support the phenomenon of "rapid onset gender dysphoria"? Journal of Pediatrics 243: 224-227. source
• Cass, H. (2024). Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: final report. study page, source
• Christakis, N. A. & Fowler, J. H. (2007). The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. New England Journal of Medicine 357: 370-379. source
• Cohen-Cole, E. & Fletcher, J. M. (2008). Is obesity contagious? Social networks vs. environmental factors in the obesity epidemic. Journal of Health Economics. source
• detrans.ai (2026). Detransition statistics from /r/detrans stories. stats page.
• Fremer, C., Szejko, N., Pisarenko, A. et al. (2022). Mass social media-induced illness presenting with Tourette-like behavior. Frontiers in Psychiatry 13: 963769. source
• Jarvi, S., Jackson, B., Swenson, L. & Crawford, H. (2013). The impact of social contagion on non-suicidal self-injury: a review of the literature. Archives of Suicide Research 17: 1-19. source
• Jarvis et al. (2025). Epidemiology of gender dysphoria and gender incongruence in children and young people attending primary care practices in England: retrospective cohort study. Archives of Disease in Childhood. study page, source
• Leonhardt, A., Fuchs, M., Gander, M. & Sevecke, K. (2024). Gender dysphoria in adolescence: examining the rapid-onset hypothesis. neuropsychiatrie 39: 1-10. source
• Littman, L. (2018; corrected 2019). Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. PLOS ONE 13(8): e0202330. source
• Littman, L. (2021). Individuals treated for gender dysphoria with medical and/or surgical transition who subsequently detransitioned: a survey of 100 detransitioners. Archives of Sexual Behavior. study page, source
• Littman, L., O'Malley, S., Kerschner, H. & Bailey, J. M. (2024). Detransition and desistance among previously trans-identified young adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior. study page, source
• Müller-Vahl, K. R., Pisarenko, A., Jakubovski, E. & Fremer, C. (2022). Stop that! It's not Tourette's but a new type of mass sociogenic illness. Brain 145: 476-480. source
• Rose, A. J. (2002). Co-rumination in the friendships of girls and boys. Child Development 73(6): 1830-1843. source
• Sinai, J. (2022). Rapid onset gender dysphoria as a distinct clinical phenomenon (letter, with Littman's letter and the authors' reply). Journal of Pediatrics. source
• Singal, J. (2022). The new study on rapid-onset gender dysphoria published in "Pediatrics". source
• Turban, J. L., Dolotina, B., King, D. & Keuroghlian, A. S. (2022). Sex assigned at birth ratio among transgender and gender diverse adolescents in the United States. Pediatrics 150(3): e2022056567. source