@article{ref1,
title="Reconsidering Durkheim's assessment of tarde: formalizing a tardian theory of imitation, contagion, and suicide suggestion",
journal="Sociological forum",
year="2014",
author="Abrutyn, Seth and Mueller, Anna S.",
volume="29",
number="3",
pages="698-719",
abstract="Emile Durkheim summarily rejected Gabriel Tarde's imitation thesis, arguing that sociology need only concern itself with social suicide rates. Over a century later, a burgeoning body of suicide research has challenged Durkheim's claim to a general theory of suicide as 4 decades worth of evidence has firmly established that (1) there is a positive association between the publicization of celebrity suicides and a spike in the aggregate suicide rate, (2) some social environments are conducive to epidemic-like outbreaks of suicides, and (3) suicidal ideas or behavior spreads to some individuals exposed to a personal role model's suicidal behavior--for example, a friend or family member. Revisiting Tarde, the article examines why Tarde's theory deserves renewed attention, elucidates what he meant by imitation, and then formalizes his &quot;laws&quot; into testable theses, while suggesting future research questions that would advance the study of suicide, as well as other pathologies. Each &quot;law&quot; is elaborated by considering advances in contemporary social psychology as well as in light of its ability to supplement Durkheim's theory in explaining the &quot;outlier&quot; cases.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0884-8971",
doi="10.1111/socf.12110",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/socf.12110"
}