The 10 Surprising Things You Didn’t Know Are Contagious

Last Updated on January 7, 2021

You must have heard about smiles and how they can be contagious, but you probably never heard about habits and feelings being as contagious, too.

Well, many experts have done their studies and they found out that the people around you can affect your decisions unintentionally, and if you didn’t keep an open mind, you would never notice it.

And you thought germs are the only things you should worry about catching!

To our surprise, the most contagious things are the ones lurking around us constantly, and not to worry you or anything but we can’t avoid them with a quick wipe of one of our disinfectant wipes because we probably would need more mental strength and awareness to even realize we have caught them.

Is your skin itching you out of a sudden? Blame the person near you because they might have just transmitted it to you, along with other things…

CLICK ON THE NEXT PAGE TO DISCOVER THE 10 SURPRISING THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ARE CONTAGIOUS

#1 – Restaurant orders

Going out for a meal is one of our favorite parts of the day, especially if we are going with people we love the most. Sharing a conversation, a laugh, and food together is all a person needs to be free from all the work’s stress. But, did you notice that you would always order something similar to theirs because they made you crave it?

According to research by the University of Illinois, diners would be happier if you ordered entrées that are nutritionally similar to your companions.

So in case you are watching your waistline or trying to be healthier, order your plate first before you get to hear your friends’ orders.

#2 – Negative thinking

You can be as optimistic as you want, but once you hang out with someone who can’t help but spread their negative thoughts, you will find yourself drowning with them. For example, how many times you were ready for an exam, but found all your confidence shatter around because of someone’s negative thinking about it?

According to a study of the University of Notre Dame, freshmen who were paired randomly with roommates were prone to catch their negative thinking style only in 3 months. This is why you need to recognize that other people’s “energy” may influence your way of responding to life challenges, and it is not going to be in a good way.

#3 – Happiness

On the other hand, happiness can also be contagious… thankfully!

Harvard and The University of California, San Diego conducted a seminal study on 5,000 people to learn more about happiness and how contagious it can be.

It turned out that if your friend living within one mile would have a 25% chance to be happy if you are, while your neighbors have a 34% chance of feeling the same way.

This means you need to surround yourself with those who are constantly happy and optimistic about life in order to earn their same emotions and to be as happy as them.

#4 – Quitting cigarettes

If both you and your friend are addicted to cigarettes, then there is a very low chance that any one of you would quit. The same research team found out that when one person quits, their family and close friends would have 36% less chance to smoke.

So if you are interested to quit, try to hang out with those who have already quitted or on the process. Not only it will be contagious, but you will also be more inspired to walk on that path of getting over an addiction.

#5 – Stress

There is something great about our brains that can both benefit and harm us at the same time; the brain is perfectly hardwired to detect stress in those close to us, like the increase in their breathing rate.

It is good because we can be aware of their emotional state and we may offer to help, but it is bad because detecting it would trigger our own stress hormones.

By the way, you don’t even need to be in the same room to detect someone’s stress because it can be easily transmitted through emails, social media, and texts.

So technically, when you take breaks to deal with your stress, you are not being selfish, you are watching out for yourself and others.

#6 – Itching

There have been many times when you see someone scratch an itch and you feel your skin tingles at the same time, don’t worry because you are not the only one.

According to a study published in the journal Science, mice would end up scratching themselves once they see other rodents chronically itchy. In fact, healthy mice ended up scratching twice as often when they were near extra-itchy counterparts.

We often worry that we might have caught something dangerous and that’s why we can’t stop scratching our sudden itches, but it is just your friend next to you trying to soothe their own itches.

#7 – The desire for new things

According to a 2012 study in the Journal of Neuroscience, participants have suddenly got an urge to get valuable things when they thought someone else wanted them. So, it is not a coincidence that you want a new house after your friend was shopping for one.

According to the psychologist Elizabeth Lombrado, Ph.D., a person is a lot more attractive when someone else wants them; they must be worth having!

This can be used as a good motivation to achieve better things, but you need to remind yourself of the great things you already have and how thankful you are for them.

#8 – Weight loss

Do you want to drop a few pounds but nothing is working as well as it supposed to? You don’t need to worry, just get you a friend who would love to join your weight-loss program and watch the miracles happen.

According to a study published in the journal Obesity, volunteers would drop the same rate of pounds at their partners. So just use this to your favor and start a new “health” journey where you can both get the body of your dreams while maintaining good health.

#9 – Loneliness

Can you believe that loneliness is contagious? We would usually think that distance would keep their isolation from spreading, but we were completely wrong.

A study that was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that after one person starts feeling lonely, their friends would get lonelier with time, too.

Loneliness was expected to be a result of lonely people being attracted to other lonely people, but instead, it came out as contagion. The researchers also believe that groups tend to cut off lonely people in order to keep the cycle going!

#10 – Body quirks

Anything our bodies do besides itching, like laughing, yawning, vomiting, crying, and coughing are contagious.

According to psychologist Robert R. Provine, yawning is extremely contagious. The second we see, hear or even read about someone yawning, we found ourselves doing it, too.

We are herd animals that are still not in full conscious of their own behavior, as scientists theorize it. Here is how they explain each one:

Scratching an itch is a form of safety precaution (the brain thinks that “their” fleas may infect you), laughter is a form of bonding, and yawning is how our caveman ancestors used to synchronize their wake-sleep schedules.

Are you blown away yet with all of these interesting and surprising contagious things?