Laughter really is contagious and may prove that positive emotions are more contagious than negative according to this week's edition of The Laughing News, the online newspaper dedicated to laughter. A new study suggests that positive emotions may also be more contagious than negative emotions. This flies in the face of science which often suggests that humans are wired for fear, anger and predatory behaviours. More at The Laughing News.
"Research by Finland’s Aalto University and Turku PET Centre published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences provides interesting data that could prove human emotions are in fact contagious—especially positive emotions.Researchers played study participants various sou
nds while measuring how their brain responded with an fMRI scanner. They played both pleasant sounds like laughter and unpleasant sounds like screaming. All sounds, positive and negative, triggered a noticeable response in the premotor cortical region of the brain. However, we found it interesting that the response was greater for positive or pleasant sounds than it was for negative or unpleasant. This suggests that positive emotions could be more contagious than negative emotions.'
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