A topic that interested me and I wanted to touch more on is contagious behavior. Contagious behavior as defined in the textbook is a "more-or-less" instinctive or reflexive behavior tirgered by the occurence of the same behavior in another individual" (Powell et al, 2017). What this means is that people will copy and mimic a contagous behavior like laughter, itching, yawning, etc.
Notice when you go out in a crowd. You see someone yawn you immediately yawn as well. You are more inclined to laugh when you are in a group of people. Someone starts laughing and it immediately spreads to everyone else.
Take, for example, the movie "Forrest Gump". He started running by himself and it turned into more people running with him. People saw his movement as hope, though like he said " I don't know much about that". But people saw him as a sign of hope and good. Contagious behavior can be applied to everyday life. I think if we produce more contagious behavior in work, school, and outdoor settings we can spa can spark change for a better world.
Hi Stephanie! I found your blog post to be very interesting. I really liked the example that you used with Forrest Gump. I never knew how contagious behavior effected other people. I have always noticed if other people start laughing that I wind up laughing too.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie! Contagious behavior is super interesting. I love how we're more inclined to laugh when we're with other people. That is something I almost always do. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteDear Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I didn't even realize this scene was in forest gump and its one of my favorite movies. They always say laughter is the best medicine and its seems like its actually true. When we see someone happy is just instinctively makes us feel good and also smile and be happy. I 100% agree with your last sentence that sometimes all it takes is a smile or a good laugh to make someone feel better.
I love learning about behavior in psychology one of my subjects you made some good comparisons between Forrest gump and Contagious behavior.I cant count how many times I have started laughing not because someone told a joke just how their laugh sounds.
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