Professor Elaine Hatfield, a psychologist from the University of Hawaii, discovered that stress can be as contagious as a cold, and that "passive" or second-handstress and anxiety can quickly spread around the workplace.
"People seem to be capable of mimicking others' facial, vocal, and postural expressions with stunning rapidity", Hatfield said.
"As a consequence, they are able to feel themselves into those other emotional lives to a surprising extent."
Prof. Hatfield's study found that we are effectively sponges, soaking up so-calledemotional contagions emitted by those around us.
As we absorb other people's stress, we can begin to feel stressed too - and to focus on issues that might be troubling us.
And Professor Hatfield found that not only do we take on other people's negative thought patterns, we can also start to subconsciously take on their stressed out body language, causing us to hunch our shoulders and furrow our brows when we talk to them.
"In conversation, people automatically and continuously mimic and synchronise their movements with the facial expressions, voices, postures, movements, and instrumental behaviors of others", Professor Hatfield says.
In doing so, people can and do "feel themselves into" the emotional landscapes others are suffering.
"Some people are oblivious and therefore immune to the stress around them", she said.
"Women are more at risk because they tend to be more in tune to other people's feelings", Prof. Hatfield adds.


据英国《每日邮报》11月8日报道，来自夏威夷大学的心理学教授伊莲•哈特菲尔德发现，压力会像感冒那样传染，"消极的"或是"二手的"压力和焦虑会在工作场合迅速蔓延开来。

哈特菲尔德说："人们似乎会以惊人的速度模仿他人的面部表情、声音和姿势。"

"因此，他们会觉得自己极大程度上融入了他人的情感生活。"

哈特菲尔德教授的研究发现，我们都像是高效的海绵，吸收了周围人发出的所谓的感染性情绪。

当我们吸收了别人的压力，我们自己也会开始感到紧张--并且会关注那些可能困扰我们的问题。

哈特菲尔德教授发现，我们不仅仅会接收他人消极的思维模式，还会开始下意识地接收他们紧张的肢体语言，这使得我们在与他们交谈时也会耸起肩膀，皱着眉头。

"在交谈中，人们会自动地不断模仿，并使自己和他人在面部表情、声音、姿势、动作和其他辅助性行为上保持同步。"哈特菲尔德教授说。

这样做，人们会感到自己融入了他人正在经历的情感世界。

"有些人无视他们周围的压力，因此能够免疫"，她说。

"女性更容易遭遇这种感染压力的风险，因为她们往往会更加顾及别人的感受"，哈特菲尔德教授补充道。

• stress [stres] n.强调；压力 vt.强调 (初中英语单词)
• second-hand [,sekənd´hænd] a.用过的；间接的 (初中英语单词)
• anxiety [æŋ´zaiəti] n.挂念；渴望；焦虑的事 (初中英语单词)
• capable [´keipəbəl] a.有能力；能干的 (初中英语单词)
• consequence [´kɔnsikwəns] n.结果；后果；推断 (初中英语单词)
• emotional [i´məuʃənəl] a.易动感情的；情感的 (初中英语单词)
• surprising [sə´praiziŋ] a.惊人的；意外的 (初中英语单词)
• absorb [əb´sɔ:b] vt.吸收；吸引 (初中英语单词)
• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
• so-called [´sou ´kɔ:ld] a.所谓的，号称的 (高中英语单词)
• negative [´negətiv] a.否定的 n.否定词 (高中英语单词)
• instrumental [,instru´mentəl] a.有帮助的 (高中英语单词)
• contagious [kən´teidʒəs] a.传染性的，有感染力 (英语四级单词)
• furrow [´fʌrəu] n.沟 vt.犁；使起皱纹 (英语四级单词)
• automatically [ɔ:tə´mætikli] ad.自动地；无意识地 (英语四级单词)
• continuously [kən´tinjuəsli] ad.连续(不断)地 (英语四级单词)
• psychologist [sai´kɔlədʒist] n.心理学家 (英语六级单词)
• hawaii [hɑ:´waii:] n.夏威夷(州) (英语六级单词)
• facial [´feiʃəl] a.面部的，脸部的 (英语六级单词)
• effectively [i´fektivli] ad.有效地 (英语六级单词)