It may not have occurred to you, but you can actually “catch” the emotions of the people around you. The Huffington Post reports research has found that many emotions– both positive and negative– are easily passed from person person, more easily than viruses like the cold or the flu. John Cacioppo, director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago explains that during a conversation we tend to mimic our companion’s facial expressions, posture, body language and speech rhythms without being consciously aware of it. Cacioppo adds, “The muscle fibers in your face and body can be activated unbeknownst to you, at much lower levels than if you were to perform these movements yourself,” and these movements trigger the actual feeling in the brain by causing mirror neurons which are “capable of [providing the basis for] empathy and compassion.” Sometimes catching someone’s positive emotions can feel great, but it can also be a bummer to catch someone’s negativity. The data even shows that loneliness can be contagious.
(Huffington Post)
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