Some diseases are contagious–like colds, flu, and chicken pox. But what about loneliness? Loneliness may not be a disease, at least not in the same way that chicken pox is. But loneliness can be contagious.

有些疾病是有傳染性的，比如感冒，流感，水痘。但是寂寞呢，會傳染么？寂寞可能算不上是一種疾病，至少不像水痘那樣。不過，寂寞是可以傳染的。

How so? The same way that many emotions can be infectious: being around someone who’s really happy can put you in a good mood while hanging around someone who’s depressed can be, well, depressing.

何以至此呢？情緒都會受周圍環(huán)境影響，比如，在一個很開心的人身邊，你自己的心情也會好；在一個沮喪的人身邊，你自己的情緒也會低沉。

The same goes for loneliness. According to one study, the average person feels lonely about forty-eight days per year. Having a lonely friend adds around seventeen extra days of lonely feelings.

寂寞亦是如此。據(jù)調查，一個人平均每年有48天會有寂寞感。如果有個寂寞的朋友在身邊，那還得另外多承受大約17天的寂寞。

Following more than five-thousand people for ten years, the study observed how loneliness can spread through a group. Lonely people, it seems, transmit their sad, lonely feelings to people around them. What happens, according to the study, is that interacting with a lonely person can leave you with a negative feeling toward friendship generally.

為了觀察寂寞是如何在人群中傳播的，該項調查小組花了10年時間，跟蹤了調查了5000多人。 看起來貌似寂寞的人會把他們的悲傷和寂寞傳給他們身邊的人。據(jù)該調查，之所以這樣，是因為和寂寞的人交往常會給自己留下一個對朋友關系的負面感覺。

And so you’re more likely to have negative experiences with other friends, weakening social bonds. If loneliness is allowed to spread unchecked, it can destroy a social network.

因此，在和其他朋友交往時你可能會受挫，從而削弱了自己的社會關系。如果任由寂寞滋生蔓延，人的社會交際網(wǎng)絡都有被毀的危險。

The best way to ward off this sort of lonely contagion is to pay more attention to people on the edges of a group. Reaching out to those who are shy or don’t fit in, and are therefore lonely, can make them feel less alone. And so they’re less likely to spread lonely feelings throughout the group.

抵御這種傳染的最好辦法就是多留意一下那些邊緣人，主動接觸那些害羞的人，和那些不合群的，寂寞的人，幫他們減少點孤獨感。這樣，他們就不會在所在人群里傳播寂寞了。

notes:

contagious:傳染的

transmit:傳播

reach out:伸出手

ward off:抵擋

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