Are mass shootings contagious?

Maybe I already covered this, but it is worth re-upping this Michael Rosenwald piece from March:

A man had just gone on a shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Mich., allegedly killing six people while driving for Uber. Sherry Towers, an Arizona State University physicist who studies how viruses spread, worried while watching the news coverage.

Last year, Towers published a study using mathematical models to examine whether mass shootings, like viruses, are contagious. She identified a 13-day period after high-profile mass shootings when the chance of another spikes. Her findings are confirmed more frequently than she would like.

…Studies have shown that the aircraft hijackings of the 1970s were contagious. Product tampering — also contagious. So is highway speeding, rioting and even military coups. Contagion is especially pronounced in suicides.

Do read the whole thing.  It is related to my recent Bloomberg piece about macro and political and financial contagion across borders.  And here is Michael’s very latest piece on the Munich shootings.

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