Moods Are Contagious: Get A Shot
Moods are not just communicated to us through words, or body language, but also they are communicated through facial expressions. Even lack of facial expression can be a signal that a person is not in a good mood. How many times have you walked into a place of business, have the clerk merely glance at you, say nothing, and go back to whatever they were doing? It did not convey a feeling of warmth that you were welcome in that store. We don't need unrelenting chipperness, by any means, but a friendly hello is always welcome.
For every emotion, there is a corresponding physiological response. If you feel fear, anger, or pain there is accompanying stress running through your system. The responses are emotion-specific. When you are feeling a negative emotion, you are better able to measure what another person is feeling if they appear to be feeling negative emotions. The same is not true for positive emotions. Perhaps this is an evolutionary defense mechanism developed to protect us around those who are feeling anger, or fear. If an ancestor saw predators coming, and you were too far away to communicate in words, you could accurately read the emotion, 'Help! There is a saber-toothed tiger at one o'clock!'
Reading these negative emotions can protect you in other situations, also. I remember driving up a winding mountain road with my young son. There was a lot of summer traffic, and a car pulling a long, long trailer was up ahead of us. I was going a little slower than everyone else, so at the first safe opportunity, I pulled into a spot on the road, and let a bunch of cars go by. A white pickup truck pulled into the spot just in front of me, and a man got out and walked toward our car. He did not look angry or aggressive, and I wondered if something was wrong with my car and he was coming to tell me. Instead, when he got close, he launched into an attack saying, 'Why the f--- didn't you pull over sooner?' My breath was taken away, but more than that he had fooled me. Had I seen an aggressive stance, and an angry expression, he would never have gotten that close.
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