Fear is an insidious and deadly thing. It can warp judgment, freeze reflexes, breed mistakes. Worse, it’s contagious.”
James Stewart
With all that is going on in the world (COVID-19, threats of war, etc.), it’s very easy to get caught up in the feelings of fear that surround us. In fact, all emotions are contagious, because we are social people and cue off each other. When people are laughing, we often laugh. When people are depressed, we can get bummed out in response. When others are scared, it increases our concerns for whatever is going on.
We can even “smell” fear, according to an article published in the Journal of Psychological Science, which suggests that humans communicate via smell just like other animals.
A doctor in South Carolina, speaking about the current pandemic of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, recently stated that, “Fear is the most contagious part of the virus.”
According to Anna Rothschild ( https://www.livescience.com/24578-humans-smell-fear.html ), there is something called the alarm pheromone which is given off through bodily secretions (i.e. sweat and tears) by social animals (bees, ants) that quickly alert the whole colony of an impending danger and can trigger a collective response.
We humans secrete something similar to the phermones called “chemosignals.” When they are secreted and other people smell them, they may get scared or stressed too. While we have long thought that we only communicate through our speech or body language, we now know that we also communicate through our body odor.
In an article in New York Magazine, Sigal Barsade, a researcher who has studied emotional contagion for more than two decades, suggests three simple ways to “cure” yourself from “catching feelings.”
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Create a distraction from the source of contagion
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Project your own positive emotion back if you are chatting with an anxious friend
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Speak up if someone is spreading unwarranted “negative vibes”
We may need to consciously decide to turn off cable news or shut off our Twitter feed when it is upsetting us in order to create a distraction from the “breeders” of the fear. We are all well aware that negative thinking is unhealthy for both our minds and our bodies. We can give ourselves and others a boost in fighting off this new virus strain by following Barsade’s advice.
To your health and happiness!