--- title: Hang Out With Happy People—It Might Be Contagious description: You can actually catch a good mood or a bad mood from your friends, according to a new study in the journal Royal Society Open Science. canonical: https://time.com/4953125/happiness-contagious-scientific-study/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-22T14:50:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:33:15.559Z article:section: Health og:title: Hang Out With Happy People—It Might Be Contagious og:description: Good moods are contagious, finds a new study, and so are bad ones og:url: https://time.com/4953125/happiness-contagious-scientific-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt800c406e68148217/6988a358524fc05f35df93f5/happiness-likability-advice.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4200 og:image:height: 2363 og:image:alt: Origami smiley og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hang Out With Happy People—It Might Be Contagious twitter:description: Good moods are contagious, finds a new study, and so are bad ones twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt800c406e68148217/6988a358524fc05f35df93f5/happiness-likability-advice.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hang Out With Happy People — It Might Be Contagious > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Amanda MacMillan / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Amanda MacMillan / Health.com Contributor Sep 22, 2017 2:50 PM UTC  Happy-smiley made origami style Happy-smiley made origami styleGetty Images by [Amanda MacMillan / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Amanda MacMillan / Health.com Contributor Sep 22, 2017 2:50 PM UTC You can actually [catch a good mood or a bad mood](http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/9/170336) from your friends, according to a recent study in the journal _Royal Society Open Science_. But that shouldn’t stop you from hanging out with pals who are down in the dumps, say the study authors: Thankfully, the effect isn’t large enough to push you into depression. The new study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that [happiness](http://www.health.com/mind-body/new-study-finds-happiness-is-contagious) and [sadness](http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20412117,00.html)—as well as lifestyle and behavioral factors like [smoking](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1808446,00.html), [drinking](http://www.health.com/alcoholism/social-networks-drinking), [obesity](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1646997,00.html), [fitness habits](http://www.health.com/fitness/running-socially-contagious) and even the ability to [concentrate](http://www.health.com/mind-body/concentration-is-contagious)—can spread across social networks, both [online](http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/facebook%5Ffeelings%5Fare%5Fcontagious%5Fstudy%5Fshows) and in real life. But while many previous studies have only looked at friendship data at one point in time, this is one of the few that measured social and mood changes over time. This method was able to show how friends actually influenced each other, and helped rule out the possibility that similarities between friends exist simply because people tend to gravitate toward and hang out with others like themselves.The new research involved groups of junior-high and high-school students who took part in [depression](http://www.health.com/depression)[ screenings](http://www.health.com/depression/google-depression-tool) and answered questions about their best friends, many of whom were also enrolled in the study. In total, 2,194 students were included in the analysis, which used a mathematical model to look for connections among friend networks. Overall, kids whose friends suffered from bad moods were more likely to report bad moods themselves—and they were less likely to have improved when they were screened again six months to a year later. When people had more happy friends, on the other hand, their moods were more likely to improve over time. Some symptoms related to [depression](http://www.health.com/depression)—like helplessness, tiredness and loss of interest—also seemed to follow this pattern, which scientists call “social contagion.” But this isn’t something sneaky and insidious that people need to worry about, says lead author Robert Eyre, a doctoral student at the University of Warwick’s Center for Complexity Science. Rather, it’s likely just a “normal empathetic response that we’re all familiar with, and something we recognize by common sense,” he says. In other words, when a friend is going through a rough patch, it makes sense that you’ll feel some of their pain, and it’s certainly not a reason to stay away. But the fact that these negative feelings do spread across networks does have important health implications, says Eyre. “The good news from our work is that following the evidence-based advice for improving mood—like exercise, sleeping well and managing [stress](http://www.health.com/stress)—can help your friends too,” he says. The study also found that having friends who were clinically depressed did not increase participants’ risk of becoming depressed themselves. “Your friends do not put you at risk of illness,” says Eyre, “so a good course of action is simply to support them.” To boost both of your moods, he suggests doing things together that you both enjoy—and taking other friends along to further spread those good feelings, too.’ _This_ [_article_](http://www.health.com/depression/moods-are-contagious/?xid=time) _originally appeared on_ [_Health.com_](http://health.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4953125/happiness-contagious-scientific-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4953125/happiness-contagious-scientific-study/"},"headline":"Hang Out With Happy People — It Might Be Contagious","datePublished":"2017-09-22T14:50:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:33:15.559Z","description":"Happiness is actually contagious","url":"https://time.com/4953125/happiness-contagious-scientific-study/","keywords":["Mental Health/Psychology","Psychology","Mental Health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt800c406e68148217/6988a358524fc05f35df93f5/happiness-likability-advice.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amanda MacMillan / Health.com"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt800c406e68148217/6988a358524fc05f35df93f5/happiness-likability-advice.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Origami smiley","caption":"Origami smiley","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-healthpsychology/","name":"Mental Health/Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4953125/happiness-contagious-scientific-study/","name":"Hang Out With Happy People — It Might Be Contagious"}}]}] ```