How to “catch” Other People’s Emotions
Emotions can be difficult to manage. We spend a lot of time trying to regulate them with things like yoga, meditation, deep breathing in a locked bathroom, or an old-fashioned bitch session with our friends. But some new research suggests that our intrinsic motivation – how we want to feel – can have a big impact on how the mood of others affects us.
Stanford psychologists recently studied how other people influence our emotions. They found that, as published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , we are more influenced by people who exhibit the emotions we want to experience and less influenced by others. Much of what they looked at has to do with how people react to politically charged events and how these emotional reactions manifest on social media.
Writer Alex Shashkevich summarizes his findings in Greater Good Magazine :
Their research showed that when a person wanted to remain calm, he remained relatively indifferent to angry people, but if they wanted to be angry, then they were strongly influenced by angry people. The researchers also found that people who wanted to get angry also became more emotional when they learned that other people were just as upset as they were, according to a series of laboratory experiments conducted by the researchers.
In other words, if you want to be pissed off, others who are already pissed will help you. But if you want to stay calm, anger won’t have the same effect.
The study’s lead author Amit Goldenberg told Greater Good Magazine : “It seems the best way to control your emotions is to start by choosing your environment. If you don’t want to be angry today, one way to do it is to avoid angry people. “
This may sound like common sense, but if you want to “catch” a good mood, you must 1. want it, and then 2. seek it.
If you want to be calm and peaceful, invite your most serene friend for coffee. If you need a positive boost, stop after work to chat with your annoyingly cheerful neighbor.
Or, if you want to get angry, go to Twitter.
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