Title:
Thought Contagion
Subtitle:
How Belief Spreads through Society
Author:
Aaron Lynch
Publisher:
Basic Books, New York, 1996
ISBN
0-465-08466-4

Lynch puts forward his book as an introduction to a new social science, made accessible to the masses. While the book is persuasive, it has flaws which make it unsuitable as an introduction to memetics for the layman, and make it controversial at best for social scientists. The subject itself is presented in a such a manner that makes the book more of a proselytic pamphlet for yet another thought contagion.

The term "meme" to describe a single unit of an idea was coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene. Lynch suggests that his work is a continuation of work in social psychology, and provides an encompassing model for explaining the existence of a large variety of human behaviors, customs, and institutions. This model he proposes to call memetics.

The book is readable, and not overly long. There are far fewer footnotes or references than the material seems to demand. There is an unnecessarily lengthy bibliography (it isn't clear if it is a list of references, or if the author is attempting to lend cachet to his treatise by citing a reading list which would daunt Newt Gingrich - it apparently does not comprise the sources for most of Lynch's claims) and a fairly sloppy index.

In the book's first two chapters, Lynch describes his thesis of thought contagion as a form of mental virus - an infection of human thought processes that spreads much like a computer virus spreads from one computer to another. Such a mental infection, Lynch writes, may even change human behavior to promote the spread of the belief.

Lynch then spends the remainder of the book providing what he considers illustrative examples of thought contagion at work, which he sees in everything from child rearing practices, to religious beliefs, to political controversy.

Whether or not the subject of thought contagion turns out to be validated by scientific investigation, there are a few observations that can be made without expertise in any particular field of science:

  • The "meme" is never actually defined. The reader is led to consider various aspects of human behavior as memes, including behavior that is constrained, behavior that may be genetic, and behavior that is learned. It is not clear that the notion of thought contagion is valid in relation to any of these types of behavior. More significantly, without a precise definition of "memes" it is impossible to consider such concepts as memetic mutation, or any of the other notions Lynch proposes in his book. It remains a slippery bit of hand-waving, and a source of frustration to anyone trying to get a handle on it.
  • While memetics might be used as an epidemiological model for the spread of an idea, it is far too limited in scope to account for all human behavior, from learning to social organization. Lynch does not convincingly show how memetics can lay claim to being a "new social science."
  • Some of Lynch's illustrative examples, notably those involving religion, make those with a suspicious bent of mind (like this reviewer) think that he has an axe to grind. It is this perception which has prompted some of the most heated noise about thought contagion. The noise appears to serve no purpose other than to uncritically spread the notion of thought contagion, and to distract social scientists from a serious discussion of the science (if any) involved.

A Brief and Not Necessarily Complete Overview of the Book

  1. Self-Sent Messages and Mass Belief

    Lynch describes the concept of messages that change human behavior in such a way as to cause themselves to be spread to other human beings. He describes various modes in which messages can be spread, and suggests that messages may mutate in the transmission so that there is an evolution of messages.

  2. A Missing Link: Memetics and the Social Sciences

    Lynch shows how the idea of passed messages can be used in various social sciences, including economics, sociology, cultural anthropology, sociobiology, psychology, politics, game theory, communication science, folklore, and cognitive science. He presents a very brief history of memetics and provides a quick contrast between memetics and "psychohistory."

  3. Family Plans - Ideas That Win With Children

    Lynch discusses how memes affect the types of family groups formed by people, and the gender roles they take up. He argues that memes which are more successful in producing offspring that accept these memes are likely to be prevalent.

  4. Sexually Transmitted Belief: The Clash of Freedom and Restriction

    Lynch talks about various sexual mores and how memes affect them. He suggests that marriage is a consequence of the interaction of two other memes: the male promiscuity meme, and the female chastity meme. He talks about various sexual beliefs. In his discussion of homosexuality he suggests that there is a cyclical nature to the appearance and disappearance of homosexuality as a socially accepted behavior, caused by changes in the reproductive rates of genetically homosexual individuals in inverse proportions to the moral acceptance of homosexuality.

  5. Successful Cults: Western Religion by Natural Selection

    Lynch provides a cursory overview of current "western" religions, and illustrates how the transmission of ideas contributed to the spread of these religions. Some of the discussions suffer from a lack of understanding of the religions which are their subject. This is also one of the more controversial parts of the idea of memetics, as it suggests to many devout believers that they are mere victims of a thought contagion.

  6. Prescription Beliefs: Thought Contagion and Health

    This chapter is a discussion of various beliefs regarding how to stay healthy and how to get well. It includes such diverse subjects as circumcision, AIDS, and astrology. Some of the discussion in this chapter, notably the one on AIDS, may deserve closer scrutiny in light of specific claims made regarding beliefs and consequent behavior.

  7. Controversy: Thought Contagion in Conflict

    Controversial radio, a (possibly uniquely) USAn institution, and various mostly USAn political controversies are the subject of this chapter. Lynch describes Limbaugh as a highly infectious carrier of conservative memes, which does prompt some amusing thoughts.

Epilogue: Thought Contagions of Thought Contagion

Lynch predicts that the spread of the idea of "thought contagion" will in fact be another thought contagion, regardless of the idea's acceptance by social scientists.