Can you pick up a good or bad mood from a friend just by being around them? New research suggests you can.
Researchers analyzed data about the moods and friendships networks of US teenagers, finding that mood does spread, as well as different symptoms of depression – but not depression itself.
The new study suggests that moods can spread across friendship networks, and could help inform public health policy and the design of interventions against depression in teenagers.
Researchers found that having more friends who suffer worse moods is associated with a higher probability of an individual experiencing low moods and a decreased probability of improving. However, the opposite applied to teenagers who had a more positive social circle
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Warwick, was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The research team analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health which incorporates the moods and friendship networks of US teenagers in schools.
The researchers’ findings imply that mood does spread over friendship networks, as do different symptoms of depression such as helplessness and loss of interest.
However, the researchers also found that the effect from lower of worse moods from friends was not strong enough to push the other friends into depression.
Using mathematical modelling, the researchers found that having more friends who suffer worse moods is associated with a higher probability of an individual experiencing low moods and a decreased probability of improving.
However, the opposite applied to teenagers who had a more positive social circle.
‘We investigated whether there is evidence for the individual components of mood (such as appetite, tiredness and sleep) spreading through US adolescent friendship networks while adjusting for confounding by modelling the transition probabilities of changing mood state over time,’ said Robert Eyre, a PhD student at the University of Warwick and the lead author of the study.
‘Evidence suggests mood may spread from person to person via a process known as social contagion.
‘Previous studies have found social support and befriending to be beneficial to mood disorders in adolescents while recent experiments suggest that an individual’s emotional state can be affected by exposure to the emotional expressions of social contacts.
‘Clearly, a greater understanding of how changes in the mood of adolescents are affected by the mood of their friends would be beneficial in informing interventions tackling adolescent depression.’
The World Health Organization has estimated that depression affects 350 million people across the world, impacting on people’s abilities to work and socialize – and at worst leading to suicide.
Using mathematical modelling, the researchers found that having more friends who suffer worse moods is associated with a higher probability of an individual experiencing low moods and a decreased probability of improving
This study’s results emphasize the need to also consider people who exhibit levels of depressive symptoms just below those needed for a diagnosis of actual depression when designing public health interventions.
The study also helps confirm that there is more to depression than just low mood.
At the individual level, the findings imply that following the evidence-based advice for improving mood – such as exercise, sleeping well, and managing stress, can help a teenager’s friends and themselves.
‘Evidence suggests mood may spread from person to person via a process known as social contagion,’ said Robert Eyre (pictured)
But for depression, friends don’t put others at risk of the illness, so a recommended course of action would be to show them support.
The team’s conclusions link to current policy discussions on the importance of sub-threshold levels of depressive symptoms and could help inform interventions against depression in senior schools.
‘The results found here can inform public health policy and the design of interventions against depression in adolescents,’ said the co-author of the study professor Frances Griffiths of Warwick Medical School
‘Sub-threshold levels of depressive symptoms in adolescents is an issue of great current concern as they have been found to be very common, to cause a reduced quality of life and to lead to greater risk of depression later on in life than having no symptoms at all.
‘Understanding that these components of mood can spread socially suggests that while the primary target of social interventions should be to increase friendships because of its benefits in reducing of the risk of depression, a secondary aim could be to reduce spreading of negative mood.’
The findings imply that mood does spread over friendship networks, as do different symptoms of depression such as helplessness and loss of interest. However, the effect from lower of worse moods from friends was not strong enough to push other friends into depression