WASHINGTON — The weather is going to get colder in the days ahead. And if you see someone shivering, chances are you will feel a chill, too.
British researchers at the University of Sussex have been looking into the phenomenon, and say feeling cold may be contagious.
They asked 36 people to look at eight videos of an actor dipping his hand into a clear container of water. Each time, the water was made visibly colder by adding ice.
The videos that showed him putting his hands in very warm water — even though his fingers turned pink — elicited no response. It was when he put his hand in a container of ice water that the study participants registered a drop in their own body temperature.
The researchers say the response was less than a degree, but still significant. They believe it was the result of empathy — or feeling the pain of others.
Their findings were published in the journal PLOS One.
Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.
