The spread of ideas or beliefs that further a particular cause is said to be Propaganda.
The term propaganda is defined as words, information, or ideas that are deliberately spread around widely that could harm or help a person, group, institution and or nation.
Not sure if this study is the particular one your looking for, but he/she looked at the differences in behaviours of newborn infants such as innate reflexes. e.g moro reflex which tests the infants response to sudden noises (the expected reflex is to spread the arms out to the side and close them in around itself, in a clinging gesture).
To spread a message or advance a cause
Diffusion
Propaganda can often to indispensable to a political or social cause. It has the ability to let the masses know about your particular view of idea set. Furthermore it may often sway individuals to your cause. Propaganda's ability to control and shift public opinion can be seen in many places throughout human history. In Soviet Russia, the industrialization of England, and of course throughout the World Wars. Propaganda is of course the spread of information that is prujudiced towards a certain point of view and ignores contradictory information that may modify or challenge the propaganda's purpose which is to support a course of action. The most dreadful example of this was in Nazi Germany. Its propaganda became a tool of the Nazi goverment to dehumanize Jews.
propaganda
The use of propaganda is a method to spread or promote ideas, beliefs, and opinions to further one's own cause or to damage an opposing cause.
John Huss spread Wycliffe's beliefs in Bohemia
Cristianity
its missionaries
Prehistoric religions spread only within particular tribes as individual's beliefs amalgamated with others'. Finally, when tribes met they would also exchange beliefs. Prehistoric religions were not codified with strict rules and therefore were subject to much more flexibility than modern religions which have holy books and interpretive works.
Missionaries
Preacher, Pastor,
missionaries
Chinese religions often spread throughout the beliefs of the family members.
John Huss.
The ideas of the enlightenment