BBC推荐：6月必读书单

8. Lee Daniel Kravetz, Strange Contagion
《奇怪的传染效应》李•丹尼尔•拉维兹

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年拉维兹搬到旧金山附近的帕洛阿尔托。她的妻子在谷歌找了一份工作，准备迎接他们的第一个孩子。但在几个月内，当地学校的5名高中生在他公寓附近的铁轨处自杀。这究竟是什么原因？一位老师告诉他：“这些孩子被煽动了。”拉维兹写道，这座位于硅谷中心的富裕小镇具有强大的创新力、汇聚了众多创意，同时也给年轻人带来了巨大压力。社会传染效应是指其他人通过可感知的思想、情绪以及行为对我们的生活产生影响，拉维兹整理了与此相关的研究。他和学校的校长以及其他社区成员尽力安抚幸存者，并阻止再有人自杀。然而，2014年又发生了一次群体自杀事件。社会传染效应威胁着人类，这本书揭开了令人不寒而栗却又至关重要的现象。（来源：哈勃出版社）