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posted by mrpg on Monday February 25 2019, @09:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-am-happy dept.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/25/697052006/anger-can-be-contagious-heres-how-to-stop-the-spread

In this era of "incite outrage-at-the-moment-to-get-that-click" clickbait news and postings pushed to us by mainstream media and social networks, is it a wonder that society is in the current state that its in..?

This article at NPR states that even if you're not aware of it, it's likely that your emotions will influence someone around you today. This can happen during our most basic exchanges, say on your commute to work. "If someone smiles at you, you smile back at them," says sociologist Nicholas Christakis of Yale University. "That's a very fleeting contagion of emotion from one person to another."

But it doesn't stop there. Emotions can spread through social networks almost like the flu or a cold. And, the extent to which emotions can cascade is eye-opening.

For instance, Christakis' research has shown that if you start to become happier with your life, a friend living close by has a 25 percent higher chance of becoming happy too. And your partner is more likely to feel better as well. The happiness can even spread to people to whom you're indirectly connected.

To document this, Christakis and his colleagues mapped out the face-to-face interactions of about 5,000 people living in one town, over the course of 32 years. Their emotional ups and downs were documented with periodic surveys. "We were able to show that as one person became happy or sad, it rippled through the network," Christakis says.

It's not just happiness that spreads, unhappiness and anger can be contagious, too. Should negative-clickbait be banned as a social threat?


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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:57PM (5 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:57PM (#807041) Journal

    You do realize you're talking to a white woman with a Han girlfriend whose first crush was black, no...? Nice try, but that doesn't work. ...actually, no, not even a great try. Just more projection.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:23PM (4 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:23PM (#807071) Homepage Journal

    Did you just "I'm not racist. I have black friends."? Hating on interracial sex. Puritanical views on porn. You need to sort your tolerance issues out before they take away your lesbian card.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:57PM (3 children)

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:57PM (#807211) Journal

      No, only in the minds of people like you who think that sort of transparent "no u, hurr hurr" is actually effective. I'd be impressed with the balls it takes to try and turn something like that around on me, except...no.

      Remember where I grew up, please. If there were any racism in me I wouldn't have survived childhood, because I *was* the "minority" for all of childhood and most of adulthood. And we got along fine. I didn't hear a single slur in any direction until 5th grade and I had to ask what it meant. As for puritanical about porn? Women like porn less than men. And I stay away from most live-action stuff because 1) it's almost all het and 2) the porn industry is...not good to women. If you were to go through my browser history you'd find a lot of stories, some Crashpad sets, and a bunch of translated yuri manga...or you would, if I were the sort to keep browser history :)

      That one backfired kind of hard on you, Uzzard. It's a really, really bad idea to accuse your opponent of holding ideological positions far closer to your own than theirs.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:32PM (2 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:32PM (#807557) Homepage Journal

        Can't backfire on me if I wasn't taking it seriously. I was just fucking with you because you slow-pitched it.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 27 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @05:11PM (#807685) Journal

          Sure. "Just joking," the last defense of the sore loser. Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better...I'm sure Mr. E. Coyote was "just joking" about all his hypergolic Acme gadgets too and if that dang Roadrunner hadn't slow-pitched himself nearby none of those explosions would ever have happened. It's all the bird's fault I tell you!

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 28 2019, @12:55PM

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday February 28 2019, @12:55PM (#808081) Homepage Journal

            I didn't say it was especially good natured shit. I'm not entirely enlightened yet. I'm a work in progress just like everyone else and still have difficulty passing up such an easy setup. I thought it was pretty obvious that I was fucking with you though.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.