10 very contagious behaviors
10 very contagious behaviors
Happiness, stress, the tendency to be alone or the ease of quitting tobacco also spread like epidemics.
Happiness
It spreads like a plague to a degree three of separation or influence, which means that if a person is happy it generates a chain reaction of well-being that affects his friends, the friends of his friends and the friends of his friends. friends. This radiant effect remains active for a year, according to scientists at Harvard University. According to the Index of the Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression, when an individual declares happiness, the likelihood that their neighbor will get infected increases by 34%, and 23% if it is a friend who lives a kilometer and a half from distance.
Laughter
According to a team of researchers from University College and Imperial College London, listening to a laugh or a joyful exclamation -yuju! - triggers an immediate response in the premotor cerebral cortex that prepares the muscles of the face to draw a smile and then , probably, to laugh. Of course, for this contagion to occur, the laughter heard must be authentic, because if it is forced it leaves the neurons indifferent. And when the ear is not able to distinguish between a real and a feigned one, the mind is not fooled either.
The feeling of cold
If there is someone who shivers at your side, be sure that you will also end up shaking with cold. It is what is deduced from a work of the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom, where the researchers showed that it is enough to watch videos of a person who is numb so that our body temperature falls. On the other hand, the same does not happen with heat: contemplating a congener due to a high temperature of the thermometer does not affect us in the least. Neil Harrison, co-author of the research, published in PLOS ONE, says that the reason is that humans are social beings and that imitating others creates a physiological state that helps us understand how they feel and what their motivations are.
The emotions of the tweets
If you are a Twitter user you will be interested to know that in this social network positive feelings are transmitted more than negative ones. Emilio Ferrara, from the University of Southern California, measured the emotional value of thousands of tweets and analyzed how the users of the platform changed before and after reading them. The results revealed that 20% of the twitterers were susceptible to contagion, with a sensitivity four times higher to positive messages than to negative ones. The researchers postulate that this tendency to oscillate in the global emotion could cause great changes that would affect the political and financial sphere.
The abandonment of tobacco
For Nicholas Christakis, who collected data on 12,067 smokers for three decades, changes in trends in social networks led a significant number of users to quit without agreeing with each other. This Harvard Medical professor observed that the more sociability and less isolation, the greater the options to quit smoking. Analyzing concrete relationships, Christakis calculated that, if your partner leaves the vice, the probability that you follow their example increases by 67%. If it is a friend or a co-worker, the percentage is reduced to 36% and 34%, respectively.
Obesity
Although nobody escapes that the love handles are not transmitted by viruses or bacteria, it can be said that obesity is contagious. This was recently proven by scientists from the universities of Harvard and California, whose research showed that the risk of being fat increases by 57% if you have friends who are fat, 71% if they are of the same sex as ours and 40%. % if the orondo is a brother. These data seem to support the idea that social factors outweigh the genetic factors in the development of obesity.
Stress
Having someone who is permanently anxious can be contagious, say scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. This infection happens to one out of every four people and is physiologically quantifiable, since it causes the release of cortisol, the stress hormone. When the affected is the couple, the possibility of contagion rises to 40%. The issue is serious, since stress is one of the greatest threats to health in today's society, because permanent exposure to cortisol has a negative impact on the heart and blood vessels, weakens the immune system and produces important neurotoxic effects long-term.
Loneliness
John T. Cacioppo, from the University of Chicago, has shown that isolation acts as a contagious disease that spreads especially on the margins of a social group. The serious thing is that, before their relationships are completely extinguished, the lonely transmit their bad faith to the few friends they have left, which in the long run increases their chances of being left alone. And is that, according to Cacioppo, "the social fabric tends to fray at the edges, like a thread that is released at the end of a crochet sweater".
Use solar energy
Living with more than one neighbor that has solar panels installed in your home considerably increases the probability of opting for that energy option. This is the conclusion reached by scientists from the Universities of Yale and New York, whose analysis showed that a rise of 10% in the number of photovoltaic panels in the neighborhood increases by 54% the probability that someone will commission another panel new. If the facilities are visible from the street, the contagion rate is even higher.
Caries
An impetuous kiss can serve as a contagious agent of this oral affection. And is that the teeth are stung by bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, which invade the mouth and stuffed with the remains of food, with special voracity when the teeth are full of sugar. Scientists from the University of Louisville showed that microbes can be easily transmitted from mother to child by checking with the spoon that the porridge is not too hot, for example.
