Why Stress is Contagious

by Esha Shahid

Have you ever wondered why when someone next to you yawns, you yawn too even when you're not tired? Or why when your mum comes home from work in a bad mood it sets the whole house in a bad mood? This can be explained by ‘mirror neurons’ - brain cells that fire when an animal acts and when it observes the same action performed by another animal. This urge to echo others is triggered by mirror neurons.

 Humans are social animals by nature (hence why we are the only animals that use and love social media) - we are dependent on trust, it's just in our DNA - this dates back go when in early ages cavemen relied on each other by literally watching each other’s backs for predators and hazards and when literacy was very rare, so people had to trust each other by their own words (also why in court we have to give sworn testimonies and say an oath based on the Bible).

Back to mirror neurons: they are specialised brain cells located in the frontal cortex at the front of the brain that mimic emotions and actions of others which is very useful to humans because without them, humans would have not learnt any empathy or be able to understand or learn any skills like something small such as tying shoelaces. But, mirror neurons aren’t always amazing - when your friend is stressing over exams, the stress can shift onto yourself too - this phenomenon is called the ‘contagion effect’ and can be observed day to day in many different circumstances.

Luckily, as we are complex and highly adapted animals, we have different neurons that have anti-mirror properties so when we see someone stealing a book, these neurons have outcompeted our mirror neurons.

Autistic people lack mirror neurons which is why they may come across as having a relative lack of social skills - the mirror neuron system allows us to decode facial expressions so you can imagine what it may be like to lack this.

In finance, the contagion effect can be explained when there's a spread of economic crisis across countries. Similar to psychology, humans copy each others actions because our brains are wired to imitate others due to natural instincts which allow us to survive in this world or even just to fit in and not be antisocial. In fact, two centuries ago, a wave of suicides occurred across Europe like an infection because the tale “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Johann von Goethe became very popular. In this tale, the hero himself commits suicide, as a result, anxious authorites banned the book across most of Europe to reduce the scarily rising sucicide levels.

In summary, humans mimic each other (contagion effect) because we are born with mirror neurons located at the front of the brain that enable us to copy others for reasons like when you're lost on a journey you follow the crowd (survival mechanism) and helps us identify actions of others to round us as social individuals.