how contagious emotions can be
from The Modern American Dream Hosted by The Modern American Dream
Experiment One: Activating Your Mirror Neurons Shortly after introducing himself, Achor asked the thousands of audience members for a little favor. He wanted them to partake in “the largest positive psychology experiments we’ve ever done.” It began with each attendee partnering with someone near them, but with a catch. “I’m legally required to tell you that you cannot partner up with someone you’re married to for this experiment, or that you wish you were married to,” Achor announced, half-jokingly. With everyone partnered up, Achor assigned them the roles of partner #1 and partner #2 based on their proximity to the stage. He noted he was using location as a determinant because when he did this experiment with a group of Wall Street executives, they argued for over five minutes about who gets to be #1. Once the roles were assigned, Achor instructed all the #1s to be physically and emotionally neutral for seven seconds while the #2s smiled genuinely and warmly into their eyes. Try as they might, the majority of the #1s in the room couldn’t remain neutral. Some broke down instantaneously, while others took several seconds, but practically everyone ended up smiling in the end. To demonstrate the power of mirror neurons even further, Achor asked the partners to switch roles and try it again. Sure enough, even with the advantage of knowing the experiment’s purpose, the #2s couldn’t resist smiling back at their partners. Achor used this experiment to demonstrate just how contagious emotions can be. To give a real-world example
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