Personality characteristics related to susceptibility to behavioral contagion

The concept of behavioral contagion first introduced by Le Ban (1895) has been employed to explain the spread of mood, attitude, and behavior from 1 person to another or from 1 person to a whole group, or even from 1 group of persons to another group. Social scientists since then have also suggested that certain behaviors are inherently more “infectious” than others, especially those that are associated with incidents of “mass phenomena”. It has also been suggested that a “contagious process” underlies the apparently immediate spread of behavior that sometimes occurs in group situations such as in crowds or other gatherings.