Monsters among us walk quietly alongside us, and by the time they become a threat, it may already be too late. Horrendous mass killings and numerous shootings haunt United States history. Up until now the modus operandi of a typical shooter was operating alone, however, recent studies have shown that the mass killings experience in America are to be considered contagious, spread from one killer to another like some sort of nightmarish plague.
Terrifying math reveals pattern behind grisly events
Following a series of patterns, and reviewing data for select periods of time when there were multiple shootings, scientists from Arizona State University have a uncovered data demonstrating that these mass killings could actually be a type of contagion. While there are outside factors to consider beyond the idea of a contagion, the researchers apply the information regarding incidents with mass killings into the formula for a contagion, and the results are shocking.
According to “Contagion in Mass Killings and School Shootings” the journal describing the nature of the spread of murder, “In our analysis, we employ a self-excitation contagion model, and find significant evidence of contagion in mass killings and school shootings. There is no significant evidence of contagion in mass shootings that involve three or fewer people killed, possibly indicating that the much higher frequency of such events compared with mass killings and school shootings reduces their relative sensationalism, and thus reduces their contagiousness.”
Incidents where three or fewer people were killed exhibited no evidences of corresponding signs of contagion, possibly indicating that the number of people killed in a mass killing, directly aligns with the number of subsequent killings that follow.
Coming to conclusions about what’s really happening
According to conclusions drawn from all of the data collected during the study, “On average, this temporary increase in probability lasts 13 days, and each incident incites at least 0.30 new incidents (p = 0.0015). We also find significant evidence of contagion in school shootings, for which an incident is contagious for an average of 13 days, and incites an average of at least 0.22 new incidents (p = 0.0001).” Results and conclusions drawn from the study demonstrate a pattern indicating that mass killings are contagious and are terrifying. Now the most important thing to ask is now that we know they are contagious, how do we prevent the spread of mass killings going forward?
