For example [vaguely]: writer creates a character who behaves like X, despite nobody actually behaving like X in real life. Then characters behaving like X become a wide-ranging trope. People in the real world begin to think it’s normal to behave like X, and subsequently start actually behaving like X themselves.
Any actual examples of this phenomenon happening?
What age were you when it struck you as something worth trying and you started to talk to your friends about it? It feels like you are attributing the change to the wrong thing tbh.