Semantic Contagion
Spillover
Semantic contagion is the process by which linguistic frames and conceptual terminology—whether organically or through influence operations—spread across ideological boundaries, acquire new political meanings in different contexts, and become embedded in a society’s analytical vocabulary in ways that persistently reshape how populations understand political reality.
Semantic contagion is the process by which linguistic frames and conceptual terminology—whether organically or through influence operations—spread across ideological boundaries, acquire new political meanings in different contexts, and become embedded in a society’s analytical vocabulary in ways that persistently reshape how populations understand political reality.
FIMI Taxonomy by Information Epidemiology Lab.
Citation
BibTeX citation:
@article{li2026,
author = {Li, E. Rosalie},
title = {Semantic {Contagion}},
date = {2026-02-17},
url = {https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/semantic-contagion.html},
langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Li, E. Rosalie. 2026. “Semantic Contagion,” February. https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/semantic-contagion.html.