Study: Facebook Users at Risk of Catching Emotions from Friends
Monday, 06 June 2011 | by Pat's Picks
Coming into Facebook-to-Facebook contact with someone’s emotions can put you at risk of catching them says a new study. The San Jose Mercury News says emotions can be transmitted the same way germs are. Researchers have long posited that emotions can be passed on through body language and intonation. But now they believe social media works in a similar way. Researchers looked at the Facebook postings of one million people and about 150 million of their friends. They found that the friends of people who used “emotionally charged” words in their status updates—“happy,” “hug,” “sick,” and “vile”—were more likely to echo similar emotions in their own posts.