[VIDEO] Duncan Nugget® #26: Contagious

There are few things more nerve-wracking than being stuck at work or on a plane next to someone who is constantly coughing.

You’re sitting there thinking, “I better not get sick or I’m going to hurt somebody.”

When people are coughing like that it’s easy to see that they might be contagious, but we are often unaware of the subtle ways that people are contagious.

The limbic system is the part of your brain that produces emotions. Scientists have discovered that it’s an open-loop system. Which means the moods and attitudes of one person transmit signals that can alter the heart rate, hormone levels, sleep rhythms and immune functions inside the body of another person. And the person may not even realize what happened.

That’s deep.

People are always contagious.

Million-Dollar Question:
What attitudes and moods are you and the people you hang around infecting each other with?

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ACTION STEPS AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What attitudes and moods do you infect other people with? What type of effect does this have on the people you know? Would your friends and family say the same thing? What would your classmates, co-workers, or colleagues say?

2. Think about a time when your mood was suddenly changed because of someone else’s mood. What happened? How do you feel about what happened?

3. When you are in a bad mood, what do you do to change it? Why does this work for you? Is there something that you think would work better?

4. What kind of social settings put you in a great mood? What is it about these settings that puts you in a great mood—the people or the experience? Why?

5. Write down the 5 people you spend the most time around. What attitudes and moods does each person bring into your life? If you are not happy about what each one brings into your life, what will you do about it?