Be Contagious
What if I told you it can be good to be contagious? I’m not talking about the cold virus you might be lugging around, but your smile, your attitude, and your energy.
I’ve long believed that how we “show up” affects others, but it’s easy to forget just how profoundly we can impact the living beings around us. Anyone who rides horses will tell you the same thing—a horse can sense a rider’s attitude and energy. Nervousness, anger, and confusion travel like electricity from the rider straight down to the horse. And the horse reacts accordingly.
The same principle applies when you’re at work: send out negative energy and you’re sure to get negativity right back.
And there’s plenty of scientific research suggesting that attitude, especially smiling, is contagious.
Most of us have heard the expression, “Smile, and the world smiles with you; cry and you cry alone,” even if we don’t know who actually said it (author Stanley Gordon West). Both psychology and neuroscience have proven some interesting things about smiling that bear this out.
One of the most significant studies was by psychologist Robert Zajonc in 1989. He found that not only does smiling have an emotional effect, but the physiological behavior of smiling or frowning actually alters the blood flow to the brain as facial muscles relax or contract, which in turn stimulates the brain areas that cause happy or sad emotions.
Since then, researchers have discovered or reinforced the following:
1. Smiling is good for us.
It stimulates neural messaging that positively affects health and happiness by releasing stress-reducing neuropeptides, as well as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin—the feel-good chemicals that lower blood pressure, help relieve pain, and serve as natural mood elevators. Smiling can literally extend our lives.
2. Smiling makes us more attractive to others.
When we smile genuinely, people see us not only as more physically attractive but also as more sincere and reliable. And not only do people react better to us as they see us smile, we also feel personally rewarded.
3. Smiling is contagious.
We see someone smiling and we automatically—and genuinely—smile back. That, in turn, lifts our mood and the moods of those around us. (On the flip side, it’s been proven that it takes conscious effort to frown.)
Because the act of smiling itself causes happiness, we can directly change our attitude by consciously smiling. And since smiling is contagious, it’s the first step in bringing good energy to those around you.
As psychologist Dale Jorgenson says, “Smiling is a case in which a simple act can have profound effects on the kinds of experiences we have with other people and how they treat us.”