14 DAY TRIAL // Spending a tad too much time close to people who suffer with depression can eventually lead to one's starting to feel gloomy as well, argues a new study recently published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
As some would put it, the findings of this investigation suggest that, despite its being a psychological condition first and foremost, depression can turn out to be contagious.
The researchers who took the time to investigate the contagious nature of depression explain that all people have certain levels of a so-called cognitive vulnerability, which determines how likely a person is to develop depression as some point in their lives.
Daily Mail says that, according to several previous studies, one's cognitive vulnerability establishes itself during one's adolescence, yet remains the same all throughout adulthood.
However, a series of experiments have shown that an individual can influence another one's cognitive vulnerability and increase it, if the two are made to spend significant amounts of time together during important life transitions.
Following their monitoring a total of 206 students who were all just starting university, the researchers discovered that those who got the chance to share a room with a mate whose cognitive vulnerability was relatively high ended up being more prone to depression themselves.
Still, it appears that these psychological mechanisms work both ways, meaning that it can sometimes happen that those who have slim chances of developing depression can help others lower their cognitive vulnerability.
“Our study demonstrates that cognitive vulnerability has the potential to wax and wane over time depending on the social context. This means that cognitive vulnerability should be thought of as plastic rather than immutable,” Dr. Gerald Haeffel explains.
Given the findings of this study, specialists suspect that a mere change of surroundings can yield significant benefits to those who are in a gloomier state of mind.