Is Gender Transition a Social Contagion?
You’re in a conversation and someone says, “Kids identify as transgender because it’s who they really are, not because it’s a ‘social contagion’.”
What would you say?
According to the National Library of Medicine website, “social contagion” is defined as “the spread of behaviors, attitudes, and affect through crowds and other types of social aggregates from one member to another.” The same source also notes that, “Adolescents are prone to social contagion because they may be especially susceptible to peer influence and social media.”
Those who believe that a transgender identity expresses who someone really is will typically reject that gender confusion has spread to so many young people as a “social contagion.” However, the best explanation for the dramatic increase in the number of young people struggling with who they are is gender confusion spread by social contagion.
And here are two reasons why...
1. It is well known that mental health problems can be socially contagious, and that technology is often how they spread.
In the 2010s, psychologists began to document so-called “suicide clusters,” groups of people—especially teenagers from the same schools—attempting suicide in quick succession. What was dubbed a “suicide contagion” was a type of social contagion and it spread quickly. In the 2010s, adolescent suicides spiked by 48% and, for girls in their early teens, suicides more than doubled. Also, since about 2012, rates of depression and anxiety have also risen dramatically, by more than 50%.
According to psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the increases in mental illness among adolescence is linked to the widespread adoption of smartphones and social media. Among younger Americans, there are very high rates of digital addiction, which comes with increased social anxiety, virtual bullying, and peer pressure, all of which enable social contagions.
2. The only sufficient explanation for the explosion in gender dysphoria, especially among girls, is by social contagion.
According to CDC data, the rate of 18–24-year-olds who identify as transgender has quintupled since 2014. In the U.K., referrals for biological males experiencing gender dysphoria shot up by 1,000% between 2009 and 2019, while referrals for biological females seeking to transition skyrocketed by more than 4,000%.
A majority of those who have pursued gender transition have reported that they were encouraged by online groups and peers on social media. And, more than 87% of parents of children experiencing gender dysphoria have reported that the confusion developed alongside increased social media and internet use.
If gender dysphoria were simply a matter of people being “born in the wrong body,” the number of patients reporting gender dysphoria should remain steady. However, the increase in gender dysphoria just as smartphones became widely available and social media platforms wildly popular suggests that it is a social contagion related to these technologies, similar to depression, suicidality, and the overall increase in mental health issues.
Also, social contagions are more common among females. The wildly disproportionate number of females experiencing gender confusion in recent years suggests it has spread socially. for example, the Tavistock Clinic in the U.K. began by treating a small number of mostly boys. As time went on, the number of girls being referred ballooned, until they made up two-thirds of patients. For most of these patients, gender dysphoria began suddenly in adolescence.
Lisa Littman of Brown University coined the term “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” to describe what we were seeing as gender confusion spread so rapidly among girls. Author Abigail Shrier described in her critically acclaimed book the “irreversible damage” of “the transgender craze seducing our daughters.”
In fact, the best explanation for how gender confusion exploded among young people, in particular girls, is that it is a socially contagious mental illness. Ignoring or denying this obvious connection has crippled our ability to help the many young people caught up in it, especially considering the “irreversible damage” of medical transition.
Thankfully, that is beginning to change.
So, the next time someone says, “Kids identify as transgender because it’s who they really are, not because it’s a ‘social contagion,’” remember these two things:
1. It is well known that mental health problems can be socially contagious, and that technology is often how they spread.
2. The only sufficient explanation for the explosion in gender dysphoria, especially among girls, is by social contagion.
What Would You Say?
What Would You Say? : Dec 17, 2024, 10:15:00 AM
Colson Center : Jun 30, 2025, 12:03:53 PM
