Catch a cold, please!

You may have seen people getting together in a beach or park, stand in a circle, look at each other laugh artificially. It may not sound so but looks funny, right?

But have you realized, without you knowing what’s happening, you too laugh, though not with that same intensity. Just that you laugh naturally. Initially, you think you are laughing at the stupidity of the group’s laughter but you don’t realize you are walking away from there in a jolly state of mind. You don’t realize they have actually made you happy!

Behavioural scientist Elaine Hatfield refers to it as emotional cognition, the notion that people tend to catch others’ emotions. Emotional contagion occurs when your emotions and related behaviours lead to similar emotions and behaviour in others.

Elaine offers strong scientific evidence which proves that when people encounter someone showing a strong emotion, like happiness or sadness, it evokes that same emotion in themselves as well.

When someone smiles at us, we instantly smile back. It’s not mimicry. We feel their emotion instantly. We don’t realize that their emotion has been passed on to us. We perceive the emotion as our own.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman describes this in his book Social Intelligence as the emotional equivalent of a cold. He says ‘when someone dumps their toxic feelings on us, explodes in anger or threats, shows disgust or contempt, they activate in us circuitry for those very same distressing emotions. Their act has potent neurological consequences.’

Put simply, emotions are contagious!

Awareness of emotional contagion is important for managing our own emotions and related actions and to assure our own well-being.

Research has found that such mimicking of behaviour comes naturally to humans and other social creatures partly on the existence of Mirror Neurons in our brain. When you sit alone and smile about some pleasant experience, these kindles certain neurons in your brain. When another person smiles at you, this kindles many of the same neurons that fired when you smiled on your own!

When you are down with high fever and yet you need to attend a meeting, you try to isolate yourself from others to the extent possible. You do it because you realize the danger of spreading the virus to others.

You need to act the same way when you have to meet people but you suffer from negative moods or emotions. Do them a favour and move away from them so you don’t give them your negative cold or virus emotions!

You could do something even better. Move only with those who are very positive. Hopefully, you will catch their happiness virus yourself!

Researchers have also discovered that happiness spreads not just through face-to-face contact but through social networks, much like a virus does. Take social media, for instance. It’s increasingly a place where most people pour their woes, share their anger and exhibit their frustrations. Most social media is just plain negative vibes and emotions on steroids.

Scientists have found that students who limited their use of Facebook and Instagram to 30 minutes per day for three weeks experienced significant reductions in loneliness and depressive symptoms, compared to students who used social media as usual during that period.

Guess why?

Taking breaks from social media can increase positive affect coz of less social comparison and exposure to negativity, plus more emphasis on physical versus sedentary activity!

So, do yourself a favour and restrict your time in social media. Smile more. Laugh a lot. Stay cheerful. Even if you are sad inside. You will be doing yourself and others a world of good!