Feeling cold is contagious, scientists find 
 
 Just looking at somebody shivering is enough to make us feel cold, new University of Sussex research has found. 
 
 Volunteers who watched videos of people putting their hands in cold water found their own body temperature drop significantly. 
 
 The research by scientists in the Brighton and Sussex Medical School shows that humans are susceptible to ‘temperature contagion’. 
 
 Neuropsychiatrist Dr Neil Harrison, who led the research, suggests that such unconscious physiological changes may help us empathise with one another and live in communities. 
 
 He said: “Mimicking another person is believed to help us create an internal model of their physiological state which we can use to better understand their motivations and how they are feeling.” 
 
 “Humans are profoundly social creatures and much of humans' success results from our ability to work together in complex communities - this would be hard to do if we were not able to rapidly empathise with each other and predict one another's thoughts, feelings and motivations.” 
 
 For the research, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE, 36 participants each watched eight videos of actors putting their hands in either visibly warm or cold water. At the same time, the temperature of their own hands was measured. Their hands were significantly colder when watching the ‘cold’ videos. However, the ‘warm’ videos did not cause a change. 
 
 Dr Harrison explains: “We think that this is probably because the warm videos were less potent - the only cues that the water was warm was steam at the beginning of the videos and the pink colour of the actor's hand (whereas blocks of ice were clearly visible throughout the duration of the cold video). 
 
 “There is also some evidence to suggest that people may be more sensitive to others appearing cold than hot.” 
 
 Dr Harrison worked on the project with Sussex colleagues Ella Cooper and Professor Hugo Critchley, who is Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, and scientists in Cambridge, London and Germany. 
 
 Notes for editors 
 
 University of Sussex Press Office contacts: James Hakner and Jacqui Bealing. 01273 678888 / press@sussex.ac.uk 
 
 The journal article You Turn Me Cold: Evidence for Temperature Contagion can be accessed on the PLOS ONE website. 
 
 Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) is a partnership between the universities of Sussex and Brighton and the NHS. ||||| Have you ever sat in a public space and realized that you didn’t quite notice how cold it was until those around you began reaching for their sweaters? While it may be true that you were always cold and just didn’t acknowledge it until you saw others do so, a recent study from England suggests the physical sensation of feeling cold is actually contagious. 
 
 In a recent study, a team of British neurologists pondered whether simply looking at someone shivering could cause you to experience similar body temperature shifts. Although it’s been observed that activities such as laughter or yawning can be contagious, science had no clear answer as to whether "non-emotional" experiences could produce similar effects. To investigate, they recruited 36 participants to sit in a temperature-controlled room, Real Clear Science reported. The participants were asked to watch two-minute-long videos of actors placing one of their hands in either steaming water, ice water, or lukewarm water. As this was happening, the researchers monitored the participants’ heart rate and hand temperatures. 
 
 Results showed that watching a video of an individual experiencing cold caused a slight, yet undeniable temperature drop in the participants’ hands. The temperature of the right hand fell by an average of around 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit, while the temperature of the left hand fell an average of 0.4 degrees. 
 
 Although the cold videos produced changes in the viewers’ body temperatures, it had no effect on their heart rate. Researchers also noted that both the hot and lukewarm videos produced no changes in the viewers. 
 
 Emotional Contagions 
 
 It’s believed that this reaction to cold may be an emotional contagion. According to a 1993 paper published by the American Psychological Society, an emotional contagion is “the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person’s, and consequently, to converge emotionally. Other activities believed to also be emotional contagions are loneliness, laughter, and even stress. 
 
 “People seem to be capable of mimicking other people’s facial, vocal, and postural expressions with stunning rapidity,” wrote the authors. “As a consequence, they are able to feel themselves into those other emotional lives at a surprising extent.” 
 
 “Current theories suggest that we do this to better understand how another person is feeling — and help us empathize with them — if you like by creating an internal model of how the other person is feeling,” lead researcher Dr. Neil Harrison told Medical Daily in an email. 
 
 The phenomena can be explained by “mirror neurons,” which, according to Harrison are known to fire when we perform an action or observe a similar action in others. 
 
 What does this mean? Well, for one, it may mean that you’re more observant and sensitive to the emotions of others than you may have originally believed. Harrison also believes that his study can help to provide insight into how humans understand other people’s emotions and motivations. 
 
 “Much of human communication occurs rapidly and without language — understanding how we are able to 'automatically' pick up on how other people are feeling, their motivations, etc., will help us better understand the complexity of human communication,” he said. 
 
 Harrison’s not alone in his belief that by gaining a better understanding of our ability to “catch” emotional contagions, we may be more equipped to understand and even advance in other area of interpersonal communication. “Such understanding may help increase understanding of group behaviors that have shaped history, whether they be Adolf Hitler fanning hatred to his listeners, Martin Luther King spreading a message of love, or the ways in which crowds behave,” concluded the researchers in the APS paper. 
 
 Source: Cooper EA, Garlick J, Featherstone E, Voon V, et al. You Turn Me Cold: Evidence for Temperature Contagion. PLOS One. 2014. ||||| As the heart of the United States braces for a wicked cold snap next week, there's also chilling news coming out of the journal PLoS ONE. On Wednesday, neuroscientists from the United Kingdom reported that cold is contagious. Yes, just looking at someone who's shivering or experiencing frigid temperatures can cause parts of your own body to become colder. 
 
 For the study, the researchers had 36 participants sit in a temperature-controlled room and watch videos of actors placing one of their hands in either visibly steaming water, ice water, or neutral still water. Each subject watched ten total videos, four each featuring warm and cold water with different actors who used either their left or right hand, as well as two control videos. All of the videos lasted two minutes. 
 
 Throughout the process, the researchers closely monitored subjects' heart rates and hand temperatures. While watching the warm and neutral videos did not produce any changes in subjects' hand temperature, watching the cold videos caused a small, but unmistakable drop. The temperature of subjects' right hands fell by an average of 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature of their left hands fell 0.4 degrees. There was no change in heart rate. 
 
 Why didn't the warm videos prompt a warming effect? The authors suggest that the warmth of the water, as indicated by the steam, may not have been as visible. On the other hand, the ice water was clearly frigid. They also note a prior review which showed that it's easier to elicit a decrease in skin temperature than an increase. 
 
 The current study presents further support and adds a physical condition to emotional contagion, the tendency for two individuals to mimic each other's expressions and emotional states. Emotional contagion is thought to be mediated by mirror neurons, brain cells that fire both when an animal peforms a certain action or observes that action. The study also broadly substantiates an extreme case of human temperature fluctuation documented in 1920 by scientist J.A. Hadfield, who worked with a patient who was able to selectively adjust their right and left hand temperature by as much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit through suggestions of heat or cold. 
 
 Source: Cooper EA, Garlick J, Featherstone E, Voon V, Singer T, et al. (2014) You Turn Me Cold: Evidence for Temperature Contagion. PLoS ONE 9(12): e116126. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0116126
– Struggling to keep warm this winter? You may want to avoid other people who look cold: A new study published in PLOS ONE suggests humans experience "temperature contagion." Subjects saw their own temperatures sink after watching videos of people putting their hands in chilly water, per a press release from the University of Sussex. Their left hands became colder by an average of 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit, while their right hands' temperatures dropped by an average of 0.1 degrees, Real Clear Science reports. The researchers classified that temperature change as "significant." Such sympathetic coldness could be an adaptive trait, says lead researcher Dr. Neil Harrison. "Humans are profoundly social creatures, and much of humans' success results from our ability to work together in complex communities," he explains. "This would be hard to do if we were not able to rapidly empathize with each other and predict one another's thoughts, feelings, and motivations." When the 36 subjects saw videos of people putting their hands in warm water, however, the subjects' body temperatures stayed the same—perhaps because the cold was more evident than the heat in the videos, Harrison notes. The "cold" clips showed blocks of ice throughout, whereas the "hot" ones only briefly showed steam at their start. "There is also some evidence to suggest that people may be more sensitive to others appearing cold than hot," he points out. Yawning is among other contagious behaviors, as Medical Daily notes—and even dogs are susceptible.