8. Lee Daniel Kravetz, Strange Contagion
《奇怪的傳染效應(yīng)》李?丹尼爾?拉維茲

Kravetz moved to Palo Alto, California in 2009. His wife had just taken a job at Google and was expecting their first child. Within months, five local high school students died by suicide on the train tracks near his apartment. Why? "These kids are driven," one teacher tells him. This affluent small town at the center of Silicon Valley, Kravetz writes, is huge in terms of innovation and scaling of new ideas – and stress upon its young. Kravetz gathers research on social contagions – the ways in which others influence our lives by catchable thoughts, emotions and behaviours. He speaks with the school's principal and other community members struggling to comfort the survivors and stop the deaths. Yet in 2014 another suicide cluster emerges. A chilling and important look at the social contagions that threaten us. (Credit: Harper)
2009年拉維茲搬到舊金山附近的帕洛阿爾托。她的妻子在谷歌找了一份工作，準(zhǔn)備迎接他們的第一個(gè)孩子。但在幾個(gè)月內(nèi)，當(dāng)?shù)貙W(xué)校的5名高中生在他公寓附近的鐵軌處自殺。這究竟是什么原因？一位老師告訴他：“這些孩子被煽動(dòng)了。”拉維茲寫道，這座位于硅谷中心的富裕小鎮(zhèn)具有強(qiáng)大的創(chuàng)新力、匯聚了眾多創(chuàng)意，同時(shí)也給年輕人帶來(lái)了巨大壓力。社會(huì)傳染效應(yīng)是指其他人通過(guò)可感知的思想、情緒以及行為對(duì)我們的生活產(chǎn)生影響，拉維茲整理了與此相關(guān)的研究。他和學(xué)校的校長(zhǎng)以及其他社區(qū)成員盡力安撫幸存者，并阻止再有人自殺。然而，2014年又發(fā)生了一次群體自殺事件。社會(huì)傳染效應(yīng)威脅著人類，這本書揭開了令人不寒而栗卻又至關(guān)重要的現(xiàn)象。（來(lái)源：哈勃出版社）