Harnessing People Around us to Feel Happier (Live with Ethan Kross)

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Harnessing People Around Us to Feel Happier (Live with Ethan Kross)"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos
• Host/Author: Pushkin Industries
• Episode: Harnessing People Around Us to Feel Happier (Live with Ethan Kross)
• Release Date: March 10, 2025

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Introduction: A Special Live Episode

In this live episode recorded at Choate Rosemary Hall, renowned psychologist Ethan Kross joins host Dr. Laurie Santos (referred to as Lori Gottlieb in the transcript) to delve into the profound impact that the people around us have on our emotions and behaviors. Building upon his expertise from the University of Michigan's Emotion and Self Control Lab, Kross explores how interpersonal interactions can either bolster our happiness or inadvertently diminish it.

Understanding Emotional Contagion

Emotional contagion refers to the phenomenon where individuals absorb and mirror the emotions of those around them. Kross emphasizes that humans are inherently social creatures, constantly interpreting others' emotions to make sense of their own feelings.

Ethan Kross: "We actually catch feelings from other people quite easily." [06:43]

This automatic absorption can lead to ripple effects or affective spirals, where emotions spread throughout a community, especially exacerbated by platforms like social media. Negative emotions can quickly cascade, fostering environments of collective distress.

Ethan Kross: "Emotions cause what we call a ripple effect. They very quickly cascade into our own lives." [07:40]

However, understanding emotional contagion provides a pathway to mitigate its negative impacts. By being aware of this mechanism, individuals can proactively influence the emotional tone of their surroundings.

The Power of Knowledge

Kross underscores the adage "knowledge is power," particularly in managing how we interact with others emotionally. Recognizing the signs of emotional contagion allows us to take steps to foster positive interactions.

Ethan Kross: "Knowledge is power. I think in part, when we're often in these social situations, we're around other people, it can be important to remember how affected we are by them." [09:26]

For instance, if one detects glum expressions in a room, they can consciously introduce positivity to counteract the prevailing mood.

Ethan Kross: "If I enter a room and I see one or two people are conveying facial expressions that I don't particularly think are conducive to the kinds of interactions I want to have, I'll try to loosen those people up and try to turn the frown around." [09:26]

Social Comparisons: The Double-Edged Sword

Social comparison is a fundamental human behavior where individuals evaluate themselves relative to others. While often leading to negative self-perception, Kross suggests that reframing these comparisons can transform them into sources of motivation.

Ethan Kross: "We are constantly looking to others to make sense of who we are. This is called social comparisons." [12:57]

A poignant illustration comes from a study involving Olympic medalists. Surprisingly, bronze medalists exhibited greater elation than gold medalists, as their comparison was not to the absolute best but to the threshold of winning a medal.

Ethan Kross: "The bronze medalist is showing incredible elation, huge smiles, sometimes even larger smiles than the gold medalist." [18:52]

This example highlights how shifting the focus of comparison—from striving to be the best to appreciating one's achievements relative to not attaining any—can significantly enhance emotional well-being.

Influence of Others on Behavior: The Chameleon Effect

Beyond emotions, the behaviors of those around us can subtly influence our own actions. This chameleon effect entails unconsciously mimicking the behaviors of others to build rapport and foster connection.

Ethan Kross: "There is this chameleon effect where if you are in the presence of someone in particular at your level or above, someone you admire, you tend to automatically mimic their behavior." [23:14]

While this can enhance relationships, it also means that negative behaviors can inadvertently be adopted. Recognizing this effect empowers individuals to consciously adopt positive behaviors and discourage negative ones within their social circles.

Building an Emotional Advisory Board

Kross introduces the concept of an emotional advisory board—a curated list of individuals who not only offer empathy but also assist in reframing negative emotions. These advisors listen, validate feelings, and guide individuals toward constructive perspectives.

Ethan Kross: "Those are your emotional advisors. Once you have those names, then I want you to think to yourself, who are the people on this list who do two things when I go to them, first they listen. They empathize with me. But then they help broaden my perspective." [46:34]

By selectively engaging with such advisors, individuals can foster more supportive and emotionally beneficial interactions.

Practical Social Hacks for Emotional Well-Being

In the latter part of the conversation, Kross shares actionable strategies to harness social interactions for enhanced happiness:

1. Planting Seeds of Positivity:

   • Introducing optimistic or humorous elements can initiate positive affective spirals.

   Ethan Kross: "You can be the seed that starts this spiral of something once it’s positive." [41:50]

2. Purposeful Over-Correction:

   • Deliberately expressing more positivity than natural to invoke reciprocal positive emotions among peers.

   Ethan Kross: "I'll often purposefully overcorrect in positivity and happiness." [42:42]

3. Reframing Social Comparisons:

   • Viewing others' successes as benchmarks for personal growth rather than sources of competition.

   Ethan Kross: "If you come across that situation, flip it. So now when I come across that situation, I think, wow, they achieved this. So can I." [49:45]

4. Leveraging Social Benchmarking:

   • Analyzing the behaviors that enable others to succeed and integrating those into one's own routines.

   Ethan Kross: "What are they doing that I am not doing? Well, she's going to the gym every day... I could do that too." [51:18]

5. Reframing Negative Events:

   • Transforming anxiety-inducing scenarios into opportunities for growth and preparation.

   Ethan Kross: "You're fortunate you're experiencing this because it's like a little internal cue telling you to prepare." [28:21]

Managing Emotional Reactions from Others

Kross highlights the importance of being mindful of how we respond to others' emotions. Effective emotional advisors not only empathize but also guide individuals toward positive reframing.

Ethan Kross: "The best conversations do two things. First, the person you're talking to, they listen. They empathize. They normalize what you're going through... Then they help broaden your perspective." [46:29]

Conversely, unconstructive venting can exacerbate negative emotions, underscoring the need for strategic emotional support.

Conclusion: Empowering Emotional Agency

The episode culminates with a reaffirmation that while managing emotions can be challenging, it is attainable through intentional social interactions and strategic reframing techniques. By understanding and leveraging the influence of those around us, individuals can cultivate environments that foster greater happiness and emotional resilience.

Ethan Kross: "There are lots and lots of tools that we can use that make emotion regulation easy." [54:07]

Dr. Laurie Santos and Ethan Kross encourage listeners to implement these social hacks, emphasizing that proactive emotional management can lead to a more fulfilling and happier life.

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Notable Quotes:

• "Other people can be our greatest ally or our worst enemy when it comes to managing our emotional lives." — Ethan Kross [05:15]

• "Knowledge is power." — Ethan Kross [09:26]

• "When you're trying to fight social comparison, you shouldn't look for the silver lining, you should look for the bronze lining." — Ethan Kross [18:52]

• "Managing our emotions is hard. It has to be hard. It sometimes is hard, but it doesn't always have to be." — Ethan Kross [54:07]

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This episode of The Happiness Lab offers valuable insights into the intricate dynamics of human emotions within social contexts. By understanding emotional contagion and the nuances of social comparison, listeners are equipped with the knowledge to cultivate more positive and supportive relationships, ultimately enhancing their overall happiness.

Transcript

[Ben Walter]

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[Lori Gottlieb]

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[Ethan Cross]

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[Lori Gottlieb]

Pushkin Hey Happiness Lab listeners. Today you're in for a special treat. If you're a regular listener of this podcast, you've probably already gotten a chance to hear from my good friend, the psychologist Ethan Pross. In fact, Ethan just visited the show as part of our recent how to season, where he gave us his top tips for hacking negative emotions. Lots of these ideas come from his new book, Managing youg Emotions so they Don't Manage youe. But in that interview, we only got to scratch the surface of the cool work that Ethan does in his Emotion and Self Control Lab at the University of Michigan. So to mark the publication of his new book, Ethan asked me to join him on stage for a Live recording of this podcast at Choate Rosemary hall, an independent school not too far from my hometown in New Haven, Connecticut. In front of an audience of teen students, Ethan and I got to chat. Not about hacking our emotions, but about the effect that other people can have on our feelings and the big effects we can have on other people too. I definitely learned a lot from this conversation and I think you will too.

[Ethan Cross]

Welcome to the Happiness Lab live where we are coming in from Choate Rosemary Hall. We have a fantastic audience of folks here for a really fun conversation with one of my favorite psychologists, Ethan Cross. So Ethan is a professor at the University of Michigan in the psychology department and at the Roth School of Business. He's the director of the Emotion and Self Control Lab and he's an expert on strategies we can use to control our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. As you might guess, with an expertise this cool, Ethan's a sought after consultant and speaker. He's worked with famous CEOs, professional basketball teams, and has even been hosted at the White House. All to help leaders and folks who need it regulate their feelings and emotions. Ethan is the author of the national and international best selling book Chatter the Voice in our why it matters and how to harness it. This book was chosen as one of the best new books of 2021 by Washington Post, CNN and USA Today. But he's just written a fabulous new book. So exciting. We're here on launch day today, a fabulous new book entitled managing your emotions so they don't manage you. Ethan is already a regular on the Happiness Lab and I'm super psyched that he's agreed to help me out with this live episode today because we're going to explore be exploring an important topic, how we can harness the people around us to feel happier. Please join me in welcoming to the Happiness Lab live. Ethan Toss. All right, Ethan, so today we're talking about a bit of a paradox when it comes to our happiness and our emotions. You and I talk a lot about things we can do to be happier and one of the biggest pieces of advices that we often give is just that we can use other people to improve our happiness. Social connection is such a huge predictor of the way we feel. Often it's a thing that we can do to make ourselves feel good. But if we're paraphrasing Jean Paul Sartre, hell is other people like other people can also be a little bit of a pain in the butt. As an expert in emotion, can you resonate with this completely?

Other people can be our greatest ally or Our worst enemy when it comes to managing our emotional lives. And what's really interesting to me about this issue is we don't get a user's guide for how to steer our interactions with other people. So I'm curious, and I think the rules here are no hands. But if you agree with something, clap. How many people here sometimes go to someone else to chat about a problem and find that it just makes you feel worse? Often not our intention, but sometimes this happens with people we really care about. Sometimes it's our loved ones. I often joke, but mean this quite seriously. There are many people in my life that I am exceptionally close to. DNA determines those close connections, if you know what I mean. I don't talk to them about problems because I know that when I do, it's just going to take me down the wrong path. And so I think it is critically important to understand how to harness your relationships with other people and also the way you interact with others to make sure those interactions contribute to fulfillment, happiness, and so forth, rather than push you in the opposite direction.

So let's take a deeper look at some spots where we get it wrong. One of the pieces of psychology that I think is really relevant here is some work on what's called emotional contagion. What's emotional contagion and why can it kind of take us off track when we're dealing with other people?

So we are a social species. We are constantly looking to other people for how to understand ourselves. And what we have learned is that we actually catch feelings from other people quite easily. So when you enter a room and you see people with a glum look on their face, sadly, as professors, I think this may happen more often than they'd like to admit, right? You go into the room and you see everyone. This immediately gives me information about what the temperature in the room is like. And I experience that emotion. And that could be adaptive, right? It signals to me maybe I've got to loosen things up. But we know that emotions cause what we call a ripple effect. They very quickly cascade into our own lives. And if you're not aware of this, you can catch the wrong set of feelings. And so we're all vulnerable to this, for better or worse.

And I think one of the ways that I've seen this play out is that it's not just a one on one contagion. It's not just like I might catch the emotions that you have, or I might catch the emotions from the audience, but then we tend to kind of transmit that to other situations. Too, Almost like a virus, right? So say I have a conversation with Ethan. This never happened with Ethan because obviously Ethan's a very happy person who's never glum. But let's say I have a conversation with Ethan. He's feeling really frustrated, he's feeling really down. I leave that conversation and then I go teach my class and then I transmit that to my class. Or I go on social media and I post something that's kind of frustrated and Guam or angry. Like. You can see what researcher Segal Barsaid calls these affective spirals, where it's like, not just like one person catches one person's emotion, but it's kind of a spiral that can almost transmit to a community. So it sounds like this can be really bad when it comes to the sort of emotions that are kind of naturally free floating around. If we're dealing with negative emotions.

Well, with negative emotions, it can certainly be the case. And I think that's particularly true with social media where we see the viral spread of negative emotions happening really, really fast. You come across news and it affects you. You see someone else displaying a negative reaction, you feel it as well. And then you quickly pass it on to someone else on the feed and then it just cascades further and further and further. And so this is where I think knowledge is power. So knowing about how this works, I think for me, in my experience as a human being is very powerful. So if I enter a room and I see one or two people are conveying facial expressions that I don't particularly think are conducive to the kinds of interactions I want to have, I'll try to loosen those people up and try to turn the frown around.

And I think it's important to this idea of knowledge is power. I think in part, when we're often in these social situations, we're around other people, it can be important to remember how affected we are by them. I think about this a lot in workplace settings where you go to work and the people on your team might be feeling optimistic or they might be feeling not so happy and you're going to catch that. But here we are at Choate today. I think this is so important in school context. Whether it's on your athletic team, whether it's in your classroom, the emotions of one person are going to kind of transmit in this way that can be, again, sort of dangerous if they're negative emotions that we're dealing with.

Absolutely. How many people here have been told, don't compare yourselves to other people. So sounds beautiful. That Piece of advice, but easier bleeping said than done, right? Like, is that easy to do? Just stop comparing yourself to other people. So talking about the way that other people can affect us, I'm reminded of the time that my daughter asked my daughter who's, you know, in high school, wanted more screen time one night and was like, really, really Supreme Court level, like litigation here, arguing for more screen time. I was like, no. You know, and I said, well, no, other families give their kids more screen time. And then she. She comes back and goes, I thought you said we don't compare ourselves to other people. Yeah, it's pretty slick, huh? I mean, I was proud inside, but I did not show it. I regulated that emotion and I just held true. But what I realized in that moment was that directive I gave. We don't compare ourselves to other people. Probably the worst advice I could ever give, because it is not possible not to reference other people. We are constantly looking to others to make sense of who we are. This is called social comparisons. That's how we operate. And I think the more we embrace that, the better, because then there's an opportunity to make social comparisons wiser. Right? To steer those comparisons so that they don't maybe negatively affect us. There's also the opportunity to benefit from this emotional contagion effect. Right. Like earlier on, when everyone else was clapping, did that feel good to folks here? I felt great. I loved it. I remember I was telling Lori this story earlier. When I was in college, one of the most memorable classes I ever took was a class on communications. And the instructor said, there is an art to being a good audience member. I'm scanning you all right now to see who's going to get an A versus an F. Couple of Fs here. Right? So the art to being a good audience member involves a gentle kind of raising your cheekbones, smiling, not, you're good. I love it. Keep going.

Ethan's pointing at one student who is really kind of kindly smiling and looking great.

And, you know, it's fine to do that. In your head, you could say, this is terrible. Yeah, I can't wait to go back to what I'm doing. Doesn't matter for us up here because we're catching these signals from you. You're conveying information to us, and so you can use that. If you know how this works, you can use it to your benefit to make other people feel better or not. Right. And so that's where the knowledge is power for how I think all this works. And we'll talk more about social comparisons, I'm sure.

But likewise, let's dive into it now, because I think we were just talking about emotional contagion as one way that we catch other people's emotions in person and also online, as you mentioned, I think, especially online, but also in person. Another way that other people negatively affect our emotions is through social comparison. And that can feel particularly frustrating because sometimes, even in a situation where you feel like you're objectively kind of doing okay, if you see somebody doing better than you, it can make you feel kind of crappy. Whether that's, oh, they had a better vacation than me, or, you know, again, here we're in high school, they're getting better grades than me, they perform better than me, they're doing better at work, making more money. You know, for folks in the adult world, it just seems like all of it makes you feel kind of bad about yourself.

And it's always possible to find someone who's outperforming you. I mean, it's remarkable. We can always find that person sometimes. I mean, a lot of people describe the experience of being on social media. A lot of people here on social media. Okay, so anyone ever feel like when you're on Instagram or whatever platforms you're on that it's kind of like navigating landmines? Like, you're going through it, you're feeling good, you're seeing the funny movie, Great, great, great. And then you catch something that, oh, crap, I suck. Like, does anyone ever have that experience or is it just me? Yes. So you don't know when it's going to happen. And we do know from lots of research that most of the social comparisons we make, and we are doing these comparisons all the time, do tend to push us in the negative direction. So we make comparisons against people who are outperforming us in some way. We don't feel great about our lives. You can actually reframe those comparisons to your benefit. And up until I knew about the science here, I was just a victim of these comparisons. I feel kind of glum. You know, I go lay on the couch, maybe put some washcloth on my head, home. I'm such a failure. Haven't lived up to my ex, you know, blah, blah, blah.

That was a joke, folks. He was trying to make a joke.

We won't even try that one again because that was just. I like this where you could just edit it out.

You just edit it out. If the joke doesn't work, it never.

Yeah, this is good. So here's what you Do. You can flip it. So now when I come across that situation, I think, wow, they achieved this. So can I. And now it's not competition. Now it's. This is information that I can use to try to aspire to reach that goal. That's a little. Little reframe, we call it. That is powerful because it neutralizes that negative social comparison, which is. Which is inevitable. And now that I know how to do it, and you know, this was a big reason for writing this book, is if you have the tools to push your emotions around, it becomes really easy to do it. It doesn't have to be super complicated. You can also do it in the negative direction. You come across someone who is doing a lot worse than you, and maybe you think to yourself, oh, my God, what if this happens to me? That makes people feel really anxious sometimes. Rather than thinking about making a comparison and feeling that way, you could flip it. Wow, I'm so grateful this hasn't happened to me. Simple switch puts you in a totally different direction. Do you ever do this when you make social comparisons? Like, tell the world, Lori, you have been silent on you making the comparisons. It's been just about me so far.

Yeah, I think so. This is one of the studies I teach in my class is just, like, so profound at how not only how bad social comparison makes us feel, but how much, like, sometimes when we're socially comparing, we just don't have any justification for it at all. And it's a study that happened, a very famous study in sports. Researchers went and they looked at Olympians who were on the stand. So these are people who won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Olympics standing on the stand. And what they did was they videotaped their facial expressions to see who was kind of who was feeling which emotions. Right. And so first the gold medalist, what are they feeling? Well, they're feeling, like, happy, elated, they're smiling. It's fine. Right? They're best in the world. Right? Now we cut to the silver medalist. What are they feeling? They're second best in the world. Like, literally better in whatever their sport is than billions of other people. What emotions are they experiencing? If you analyze their facial expressions, it's not happiness. It's emotions like contempt, deep sadness, grief. Like they're not even in the positive camp anymore. They're just experiencing only negative emotions. Why? There's a really obvious social comparison there. When you won the silver medal, you really almost got gold, but you didn't get it. So what are you feeling? You're not Feeling like slightly less happy than the best in the world. Even though you are the second best in the world, you're feeling awful, right? But the reason I like this study is that it also points to a way that we can do better because those researchers also measured the emotions of the bronze medalist, the person who did third. Right now you might think if the silver medalist is feeling really terrible and contemptuous and experiencing grief, then the bronze medalist is going to be doing even worse. Like, they're going to be totally miserable, right? Turns out, not. So. The bronze medalist is showing incredible elation, huge smiles, sometimes even huger smiles than the gold medalist, which is weird. So you ask the question, what's going on? Well, what's going on again is social comparison. Who's the bronze medalist comparing himself against to? Not gold. Because that was like several seconds or several points or whatever away. The bronze medalist is saying, oh my gosh, if I was just a little bit slower, if I performed a little bit worse, I wouldn't be getting any medal at all. I would just be clapping from the back of the stands, going home empty handed. I feel awesome. The bronze medalist comparison makes him feel good. And this is why I always joke with my students that when you're trying to fight social comparison, you shouldn't look for the silver lining, you should look for the bronze lining. That one felt almost like it was a good joke. Thank you.

But Laurie, like the way you just described it so completely agree with that route to harnessing social comparisons. But when you describe the silver medalist as, hey, you are number two out of seven billion people on the planet right now, that's a reframe, too, that the silver medalist can use that is really powerful. And you know, if there's one big picture lesson that I would love all of you to take away from this conversation with us about managing your emotions, it is that you can be proactive in how to do it. Oftentimes we just stumble into emotional reactions. We make the comparison, it leads us in a particular direction, and then we just kind of ride it out until it peters out. But you could get in there strategically doing the kinds of things that Laurie and I are talking about to nip those reactions in the bud or extend them or lengthen them and increase their intensity, whatever you want to do, if you understand the specific tactics that exist, and there are lots of them.

And so when we get back from the break, we're going to talk about some tactics we can use to deal with not just the way other people affect our emotions, but the way other people affect our behavior. The Happiness Lab will be right back.

[Lori Gottlieb]

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[Ethan Cross]

There's a new podcast from Audible that I'm super excited about. It's called Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen. Now you probably know Chrissy Teigen. She's funny, honest and full of curiosity. And now she's finally diving into the topic of well being with her new show. Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen is all about exploring personal growth, but to do so with no judgment, just great conversations. My favorite part of the show is that Chrissy talks to top experts in the field of well being. Think folks like Mel Robbins and even Adam Grant. Whether you're new to this whole well being thing or or you've been on this journey for years, Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen has something for everyone.

[Lori Gottlieb]

I've already taken away a bunch of.

[Ethan Cross]

Tools from this show and I'm sure you will too. Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen the new Wellness podcast from Audible. Expand your self awareness, gain valuable insights and become more self conscious. New episodes drop each week. Go to audible.com chrissiepodcast or wherever you get your podcasts and start listening today.

[Lori Gottlieb]

The Happiness Lab is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance.

[Ethan Cross]

As Amica says, empathy is our best policy that's why they'll go above and beyond to tailor your insurance coverage to best fit your needs. Whether you're on the road at home or traveling along life's journey, their friendly and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to ensure you have the right coverage in place. Amica will provide you with peace of mind. Go to amica.com and get a quote today.

All right, we're coming back from the break. The happiness Lab at Choate Rosemary Hall Live is returning. Okay, so before the break, we were talking about ways that other people affect our emotions. Now I want to get into ways that other people affect our behavior, what we're actually doing. And there's a long history of this in the field of psychology. Right.

Other people are in a position to push us around in all sorts of ways. They can affect the way we think, they can affect the way we feel, they can affect the way we behave. Okay, so just look at Laurie and I right now. Anyone notice something similar? Like, they're all different ways we could have chosen to sit. Like, I could have done this. I was going to do a lotus position yoga. I can't actually do it, but, like, I could be like this.

Like, your hands are popped over.

Yeah, I could, you know, but we're like this.

We're mimicking crossed knees, both looking exactly.

Right, kind of upright. So there is this chameleon effect where if you are in the presence of someone in particular at your level or above, someone you admire, you tend to automatically mimic their behavior. So if you've ever been in an interaction where someone starts doing this, you cross your hands, and then the person next to you crosses your hands. Anyone ever, like, witness this kind of mimicking that occurs? This is endemic to how we function. And interestingly enough, it can improve rapport between people because there's this matching between us.

In fact, one thing they often tell you to do, if you want to become friends with somebody, get to know people, let somebody else know that you're listening to them, is to what's called mirror their behavior. So not like perfectly copy it, but kind of do it. Turns out this is actually a podcaster technique. When you're doing it live, it's for me to copy your actions, make you feel like you've been.

Have you been doing. I feel very welcome in your presence. Warm cup of tea.

But what are some of the consequences of this? It means that naturally, without realizing it, we're soaking in the behaviors of others and copying it.

Other people. Look, the world is. Is messy. The world is unpredictable. We are constantly, as human beings, striving to make sense of how to optimally navigate this world. You, as someone who I can trust, someone I admire, you're giving me all sorts of information. So I'm taking that in and I'm using it to guide my own behavior unconsciously because I could count on you. Now, if it's someone else who I don't know and I don't trust, I'm not going to mimic them as much. Now, you can have fun with this effect if you want. Like, you might be talking to someone and you could push its limits. You know, like, Lori does this when she interviews new graduate students. I'm just joking. That's going to be an edit. But you could. You can do a little bit of experimenting to see how this actually operates. It is a powerful, powerful phenomenon. And if you see someone mimicking you, I think it's a sign of a flattery, like they actually hold you at some level of esteem. Now, if you're not mimicking, don't take that the wrong way. If you're not being mimicked. Right. You could reframe it.

But that's kind of the behavioral copying we do just kind of unconsciously. Sometimes when we see other people's behavior, it affects the way we think about things and reason about things. This is a phenomenon that's often been called social benchmarking. What's that?

This is this wonderful study where I don't think you could actually do this nowadays in the lab. This was done maybe 60 years ago, this study. And participants came into the lab and they were actually injected with adrenaline, but they didn't actually know it was adrenaline. I think they were told it was vitamins or something to that effect. And so they've got these kinds of arousal symptoms. Right. They're like, energized physiologically. They don't quite know where this energization. Is that a word? Possibly. We're gonna run with it Sounds okay. Okay. Energization is coming from. It's definitely not a word. That energized feeling. They don't know where it's coming from. And what the experimenters do. In one condition, they have this actor come into the room and he acts, like, euphoric. She's just super, super happy. And in another condition, you have an actor come in and he's really angry. And what the experimenters want to see is, does the subject who's been shot up with this adrenaline, does the behavior of the other person change the way that they behave? So you Got all these feelings, but you're not sure how to make sense of it. And so what they end up finding is that when you're in the presence of someone acting really angry, you start acting more angry as well. If you're in the presence of someone who is acting euphoric, you kind of start behaving happier too. So it's another example of how other people have the potential to powerfully shape the way we ourselves respond and in this case, behave. And that is particularly true when you are not sure of how to behave or you are not sure how to make sense of what is going on inside you.

And I think that particularly fits with this study. Right? These subjects are shot up with this chemical. They thought they took a vitamin, and now all of a sudden they're just feeling this sense of energy. They don't know what's going on. And so they look to this other person to be like, oh, we're angry now. We're angry at the experimenter. Oh, we're euphoric. And that happened in this weird, strange, possibly unethical now experiment. But this happens all the time when we have an experience that we're kind of not sure how to make sense of. We have to look to other people.

So this reminds me of a story with my oldest daughter. And a couple of years ago, she transitioned to a new school. It was a lot more demanding academically than the school she was in before. And I go up into her bedroom one night, and I notice she's physically distressed. She's really getting worked up. She seems very, very anxious in a way. I've never seen her experience that emotion before. I go, sweetie, what's going on? What's wrong? And she goes. She's breathing heavy and, like, I don't know what's happening. Like, I'm feeling these things in my stomach and what's going on. And so then that's my opportunity to get in there and help her interpret this uncertainty. Sweetie, that's your body doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing right now. You've got a really important test tomorrow, and you're experiencing this response that's saying, hey, you need to do a little bit more studying before you go to bed. That's it. You're actually lucky. You're fortunate you're experiencing this because it's like a little internal cue telling you to prepare. And the moment I gave her that interpretation, her entire demeanor changed, Right? The anxiety went way down, and she got into studying. So what I've done there is I reframe the experience for her. I reframed her bodily reaction. This is taking a page straight out of research where you tell people to either make sense of their physiological symptoms of anxiety, either as a threat, oh, my God, something may be wrong versus a challenge. Like, this is your body rising to the occasion. And it worked like clockwork. And so that is one powerful potential that other people have for us. Other people are often in a position to help us reframe our circumstances in ways that can really put us on.

The right trajectory, or the problem is that or put us on the wrong trajectory. And I'm cognizant we're having this conversation in front of a high school audience. You know, students, how many times have you gotten a bad grade on something, not really sure how to take it. But you show your parents or you show your friends, and they either react and, like, that's fine. It's like just one paper, or they're like, oh, my gosh, you got that grade. I don't know how that's going to affect your college. Like, what does that do to you? And so I think, you know, it's great that your daughter had a parent who's so careful to help her kind of rethink that emotion in a way that's good. I worry so often we do this in a way that's like, that's not great. That, like, as parents, as mentors, our first reaction is to kind of feel upset at someone's failure rather than say, like, oh, this is great. This is this cool opportunity. But our reaction is changing how somebody else might be feeling about a particular situation they find themselves in.

I worry about it, too. And that's why I think conversations like this, all the. You know, this aside with you all are exceptionally important because what knowing about how this works gives you the opportunity to do is, number one, when people come to you, when your friends, your siblings, later on in life, other colleagues come to you for support, you are now mindful of the powerful role that you exert on their emotional lives. And you should take that, really. That's a serious responsibility that you have to do good for other human beings. If you know how to steer their ways of thinking, you can really help them. But it also gives all of you the opportunity to be a lot more selective about who you talk to, about the issues that you are struggling with. I think a lot of us don't think twice about who to go to for support. We just feel like we've got to talk to other people. Let's find someone and let it out. And sometimes it's like flipping a coin who's going to push you down the wrong path or the right one. And it doesn't have to be that random.

So I think this is sometimes the thing that's about other people affecting us that's so frustrating is like people who are trying to do good, trying to give advice, trying to help sometimes wind up messing a saw. And you've actually seen this in a new domain, in a new paper that just came out where the kind of advice that people are giving, maybe even about the benefits of social connection and talking to people can sometimes go awry. Tell me about the new loneliness study.

So this is some really exciting research. It's led by a graduate student in my lab, Mikayla Rodriguez. And let me start by just asking all of you, how many of you here have heard quite frequently this messaging that being alone is bad for you, it's toxic, you want to stay away from those experiences. This is a pervasive message right now. There's a huge amount of attention in this country and several others as well. There's, I think, a minister of loneliness in the UK and Japan. There's a huge amount of attention trying to help people combat experiences of being alone and the feelings of loneliness that accompany those states. Being lonely has been compared to smoking cigarettes in terms of its impact on your health. And so what we've done across a series of studies is try to understand how the messaging that we are giving to society about this might help or hurt folks. And so here's what we've learned. Number one, there's actually nothing intrinsically bad about being physically alone for circumscribed periods of time.

This is not forever, not chronic isolation.

But being how many people here actually find value in being alone? Sometimes it can be kind, it can be restorative, it can be a source of creativity. So what we've seen in lots of research is how you think about being alone. Is it good for me or bad for me? Directly impacts how you experience that state. If you think being alone is bad for you. If you're sitting at the lunchroom and you're eating by yourself one day and you think, oh boy, not good. That's going to lead you to feel lonelier. If you think this is an opportunity to rest and restore, be alone with my thoughts, this could be a good thing. You actually feel better when you spend time alone. Okay? And we see that over and over again. Here's why this is really important. We did this Analysis where we went back several years and we looked at every major news article that talked about being alone and we coded it rigorously for Are you describing this experience of being alone as something that's good for you or bad for you? Overwhelmingly, the media describes experiences of being alone as bad for you as toxic. Why that matters, we've shown if you give people news articles, in one condition they describe being alone as bad for you, and in another condition being alone is good for you. What information you are exposed to there directly impacts how you think about this, what this state does for you. So if you're reading these articles, being alone is really bad for you. You think it's bad for you, and that in turn makes it bad for you. It's almost a self fulfilling prophecy.

So it's again, it seems like another situation where hearing how other people are talking about it is affecting how we might think about it. Maybe we're kind of in between good points and bad points, but you hear other people saying, oh, this is so bad, it becomes a social benchmark which affects your own emotions when. When you're in that state.

That's right. And what's really tragic about this phenomenon is I genuinely think the folks who are behind this messaging are pushing it out there to help people. But what we are learning is that their attempts to help society may be actually backfiring.

And so we want to avoid these moments where being around other people winds up backfiring. We want to avoid these moments when other people's emotions make us feel bad or other people's behaviors make us do something that might not fit with our goals. But how do we do that? Luckily, when we get back from the break, Ethan is going to help us out. The Happiness Lab, live from short, Rosemary Hall. We'll do it.

There's a new podcast from Audible that I'm super excited about. It's called Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen. Now, you probably know Chrissy Teigen. She's funny, honest and full of curiosity. And now she's finally diving into the topic of well being with her new show. Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen is all about exploring personal growth, but to do so with no judgment, just great conversations. My favorite part of the show is that Chrissy talks to top experts in the field of well being. Think folks like Mel Robbins and even Adam Grant, whether you're new to this whole well being thing or, or you've been on this journey for years, Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen has something for everyone. I've already taken away a bunch of tools from this show and I'm sure you will too. Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen the new Wellness podcast from Audible. Expand your self awareness, gain valuable insights and become more self conscious. New episodes drop each week. Go to audible.com chrissiepodcast or wherever you get your podcasts and start listening today.

[Lori Gottlieb]

The Happiness Lab is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance.

[Ethan Cross]

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[Lori Gottlieb]

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. In our society, which glorifies hyper independence, it's easy to forget that we're all better off when we have a good support system in place.

[Ethan Cross]

Research shows that we're better able to.

[Lori Gottlieb]

Handle stressful times if we have someone to chat with. I'm lucky to have a great support system. My husband Mark, lots of good friends who are there whenever things feel overwhelming. And I also have my therapist. My therapist doesn't always have all the answers, but she does help me refocus my thought patterns and my emotion. Therapy can be a source of support for any area of your life. It can help you switch your focus from doing it all to knowing when to ask for help. Plus, therapy can help you learn positive coping skills. It can teach you how to set boundaries, ones that will empower you to be the best version of yourself. If you're considering therapy, give BetterHelp a try. BetterHelp is fully online. It's convenient and affordable, and you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. Build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com Lauri to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelph e l p.com Lauri l a u R I E.

[Ethan Cross]

We are back to Happiness Lab live from Choate. So now we're going to do the fun part of our conversation because we're going to talk about how we can kind of use other people in a way that really does make our emotions feel better, that does allow us to achieve our behavioral goals and so on a kind of set of like social hacks that can be these powerful tools for shaping our happiness ultimately. So let's go back to one of the things we talked about before emotional contagion. What are some hacks that we can use to kind of have other people? What are some hacks that we can use to catch other people's emotions in ways that are good for us versus bad for us?

I think, number one, this more than any phenomenon that we talked about today, this is where knowledge is power is so unbelievably relevant. So I did a little bit of intervention a little bit earlier where I shared with all of you how your facial expressions can impact us up here. And some of you have responded very nicely. Others, I think there's still some room for improvement, maybe a lot.

Some are falling asleep. We're having this conversation a little early.

That's it's all good. So I'm joking. But knowing how this works can be really powerful. So as someone who leads different groups and teams, I'm exceptionally sensitive to the kind of emotional displays in the group and the demeanor in the group. And if I find that one or two people are consistently showing up in a way that is cascading and impacting everyone else, I intervene right away. I do it with compassion. I often explain how this works and that is often enough. But it is really important to do it because the entire spirit of the lab or the group can easily nosedive if I don't address this right away.

And I love this suggestion so much because I think sometimes when we hear about these effects of emotional contagion, we're like, oh my gosh, we're just totally at the mercy of the people around us. And I'm just like, my emotions are stuck. But what you have to understand when you hear those effects is like, that also means you have agency, right? If you roll into your team and everybody's kind of feeling down, you have to remember, like, wait, I have the agency that if I place a seed of a little bit of optimism, a little bit of humor, a little bit of something, a little bit more positive energy, whatever you need, that seed is going to spread. And what's really cool about the fact that they're these ripple effects, these so called affective spirals, is like if you plant that seed and even if it's a little forced, even if you're kind of trying a little bit, if other people catch it, they're going to catch that a little bit authentically and then they'll feed it back to you, right? So you can kind of be the seed that starts this spiral of something once it positive.

And you can leverage a lot of the other effects that we've been talking about. So I'll often purposefully overcorrect in positivity and happiness. Like don't I look ridiculous now?

Hey, he's smiling. He's smiling really jokingly the students, if you see their faces, they're like why is he making that expression?

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, but there we go, we got the laugh. So I'll often focus in on the one person who maybe isn't showing the right kind of attitude and either not directly through these kind of chameleon effects, try to loosen them up. Or maybe I'll ask them, hey, so what's going on? Anything could happen this weekend. Try to shift their mood deliberately.

So that's sort of emotional contagion. We talked a little before about sort of venting this idea that sometimes we want to share our emotions with other people or share our troubles with other people. But often, sometimes there are people out there that don't necessarily mirror back to us what we want to hear. They kind of can hype us up or get us even more upset or more frustrated. How do we do a better job picking people? We should meant to more successfully than others.

So this, it turns out, is actually pretty simple to do. And when I think about like all the science I've written about in this book, this is top five pieces of information that I use in my own life and really benefit from it quite a bit. So I think about who are the people in my life that when I go to to talk to them about a problem, they don't just listen and demonstrate that they support me and have my back, but essentially egg me on, which is what happens when you co ruminate with someone else. So here's the situation like something bad has happened to you and you go to talk to someone else about it. So I have a difficult interaction, let's say with a colleague and I call Lori, Lori, can you believe what this person did? And you say oh my God, I.

Can'T believe they did that. They suck. Why are you even in that university? It sucks. Like you need to get rid of all your cop like you see what I'm doing? I'm just like fueling the fire, right? I haven't gone into problem solving mode. I haven't tried to de escalate this.

And when you do that for me, I love it, love it in the moment. It is indulgent. It is, yes. Lori's on my side, she hears me, she feels me. So that's really good for our relationship to do a little bit of that. Kind of back and forth expression and venting. Ideally, though, at some point in this conversation, Laurie says to me, oh, man, that sounds tough.

But, like, how are we gonna deal with the situation? Like, you know, like, what we should. What should we do to shift your emotions? Let's play Don't Stop Believing because that's a really fun song and you'll feel better. Like, we just do whatever to kind of get back to a good.

She's playing. That is one of my favorite emotion shifter music.

He wanted to play that coming out, but we had nipped that in the butt. But. And that's important because as you said, the venting, the co. Ruminating, as we called it, it's really good for our relationship, but it's really bad for both of our emotions, ultimately. That's right, because if I leave the conversation, that terrible interaction with the colleague didn't even happen to me. But now I'm having a terrible day too, and I haven't helped. What I think Ethan probably wanted out of this conversation, which is a way to shift his emotions back.

I mean, I had a conversation sometimes, like I'm. You catch the emotion of friend called me up and they just didn't even give me a chance to help shift their perspective. They just rapid fire launched in.

And.

Then, like, hung up. Okay, I gotta go. And for the next three hours, I'm just going over in my head what happened to them. And I'm taking on all the emotional baggage. So those are not the best kinds of conversations to make you feel better. The best conversations do two things. First, the person you're talking to, they listen. They empathize. They normalize what you're going through. Laurie, you're not alone. Like anyone would feel this way.

Human experience. A lot of people have this bad day with colleagues. It doesn't mean every day is going to be bad with your colleagues.

And so you start broadening the perspective. That is the art of being a good emotional advisor. And so my advice to everyone here is to, like, when you're done, if you care about this, make a little table. Personal problems, school problems. List out all the people you talk to about those different kinds of problems. Some of you may have the same names of people on each column. Like, you talk to the same people about personal stuff and school stuff. Others may have different names. Some of you may have no names. Doesn't matter. I'm just doing an audit here. Who is your emotional advisory board. Once you have those names, then I want you to think to yourself, okay, who are the People on this list who do two things when I go to them, first they listen. They empathize with me. But then they help broaden my perspective. They help shift the way I think about. That wasn't purposeful. That was just slipped in there.

His book is called Shift. He's pointing.

That was terrible. Not intended. But who are the people who help you reframe how you're thinking about your. Your circumstances to ultimately allow you to move on? Those are your emotional advisors. Circle those names. For all the names you didn't circle, you've got two choices. Number one, go get a red sharpie and cross their names off your list. Something kind of cathartic about doing that. Satisfying. It's a legitimate option. There are some people who you can be super close. You love them, talk to them about other stuff, but not the big problems in life if they're not serving you well there. The other opportunity you have is to educate those people who aren't serving you well in this capacity by sharing with them what you've learned. And I feel like it's important to give you a disclaimer. There's an art to doing that well. I would not advise you to pull those people aside and say, hey, I just went to this presentation. You know what I learned? You suck as an advisor. Like, you really. You make me feel bad. I know you love me, but it doesn't help, so quit it. Okay, can do this instead. Probably not the most elegant way of intervening. A better way is, did you know that actually just sharing out stuff and just getting me to rehearse things doesn't actually help? I had no idea that actually, if you really want to help someone, you need to look at that bigger picture. Or if you don't want to do that, you could say, I just listened to this awesome live taping of a.

Happiness lab that was at my school.

That was at my school. And I think you'll find it really interesting. I learned all these things I never knew about. And then you hope they get to the end of the podcast. How many people get to the end of the podcast?

Everybody.

Everyone. Okay.

That wasn't even a joke. That was just fun. All right, so that's kind of dealing with sort of fighting, motion, contagion, how we can sort of get people to help us vent better, vent more effectively. How do we deal with the social comparison? We talked a little bit before about kind of using it more productively, but what are our go to social hacks there?

So social comparison. So, number one, if you do it there's nothing wrong with you. I can't tell you how many people I encounter who they feel bad about themselves because they're making these social comparisons. It's as though it's a sign of weakness that you're referencing other people. This is not a weakness. This is how you are wired. It is how we are built. And simply recognizing that should be liberating to some degree. It certainly is for me. I do it. I can't help it. It's how we function. So, number one, recognize that that will help. Number two, if you find yourself making a comparison against someone who is outperforming you in some way, flip it. Right? It's no longer, oh, my God, they're doing so much better. They did it. So can I use it as a source of motivation, as fuel to propel you? It's showing you what is actually possible, what you are capable of achieving. We tend to feel worse about the comparisons we make to people who are like us. Right. So you're like, you'd be a great example for me. You are like me in many ways. If you are outperforming me in some way, that's really going to sting. But the fact that you are like me also means that what you've achieved is something that I can do, too. I think you will be amazed at how quickly this little reframe can totally reroute your emotional experience.

There's also an interesting way that you can use the sort of social benchmarking with that too, which I find can be really powerful. Right. You think, like, oh, that person's like me. I can achieve that too. But then you also then ask the further question of, like, well, what are they doing that, like, I'm not doing?

Absolutely.

I had this good friend of mine who was like, I'm not a very fit person. She was also not a very fit person, but kind of. She'd gotten a little bit sick and then just, like, really devoted herself to fitness and just started going to the gym all the time and so on. And I found myself doing the like, man, she's getting so fit. Like, she's just, like, doing so well and feeling that social comparison, that envy. But with this hack, I could do the following. I was like, well, she was just like me before. She was also unfit. But then I asked myself the question, well, what's she doing? I'm like, well, she's going to the gym every day. She's really paying attention to what she eats. She's going really hardcore with it. And then I Had this realization of, like, well, I could do that too, but I also have to do all the other hard stuff that she's doing. And then you could ask the question reasonably, do I want to do that hard stuff or not, Right. I think this can be powerful, right? Because you remember, like, it's not just by, you know, some accident often that people are doing better, especially if they've made a change, especially if they started like you. Often, you know, they're putting some work into this. They're making choices that maybe you are not making now, but you could.

I experienced the very similar phenomenon. It was not with someone who was like me, per se. It was with President Obama and so not like me. But I remember it was like I was just starting as an assistant professor, and, you know, it was hard being an assistant professor. I was grinding away, and I wasn't exercising regularly. And I came across an article about how Obama exercised every day. And immediately I come across this information. Now I'm. I'm really feeling bad about myself. Like, my pants aren't fitting to begin with. And now I'm finding out that the president of the free world, right, like, is. Is able to do this. Like, yeah, not good. So what did I do?

And.

And back then, it took me a while to reframe this because it wasn't top of mind as it is now. But eventually I did. And I thought to myself, you know, what if that guy who's a lot busier than me and a lot more important, can find time to exercise each morning, so can I. And to this day, that is a guiding motivation I use to get me to the gym.

It's so funny because I have this similar thing when I'm at the gym, and I have this trainer who is trying to help me, but, you know, it's tough for him, but sometimes he'll make me do planks. And I hate doing planks. But I remember hearing that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the former Supreme Court justice, did, like three minutes of planks every day, and she was like, 80. And so when I hate this, I'm like, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who's so much older than me, and she could do this that I feel like I should be able to do it, too.

What we are talking about here is weaponizing these social comparisons to your benefit, right? We stumble into them at, like, don't wait to stumble into it. Jump in there and do it. And the quick flip side I think we're winding down here is it works the other way, too. If you find yourself coming across a case, someone or a group of people, tragedy has befallen them and you instantly interpret that as, oh my God, what if that happens to me? I was just recently in D.C. for example, when the plane crash occurred. I actually flew in like a half hour after that happened. And many people that I was around were con were really overcome with negativity because they were thinking about, oh my God, what if this had happened to me. You can flip it, right, if you don't want to feel that way. Oh my God, how lucky am I that this didn't happen to me? It's a very easy switch. So I'll say one more thing, 15 seconds and I'll throw it back to you. A lot of people think that managing our emotions is hard. It has to be hard. It sometimes is hard, but it doesn't always have to be. There are lots and lots of tools that we can use that make emotion regulation easy. And I think the more you can familiarize yourself with those easy to use effortless shifts. And thank you to you for helping share these things with the world in your podcast. I think the happier we all will be.

Well, Ethan, thank you so much for helping us figure out how we can use these social hacks to shift our emotions. I think I speak for all the folks in the room and listening at home. Say you're really feeling like shifting is going to be a little bit easier. And we'd like to thank you for all your. Thank you so much.

[Lori Gottlieb]

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[Ethan Cross]

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[Lori Gottlieb]

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[Ethan Cross]

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[Lori Gottlieb]

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