Flash mobs can make you do funny things.
The seemingly spontaneous public performances made Heather Vega, a public relations professional in San Francisco, wake up early one Saturday morning in August to crouch behind a Macy’s fragrance counter, where she and her sister waited for their cues.
They made a group of psychologists break character at a professional conference this summer to put on a show for unsuspecting colleagues.
They’ve made libraries get rowdy and shoppers open umbrellas inside.
“It’s just a very positive coming together of strangers,” says Vega, 31, whose flash mob was organized by the Make-A-Wish Foundation to surprise a boy with a life-threatening medical condition. “It’s one of the reasons I generally like volunteering anyway: The idea of being reminded that people, when given the opportunity, want to do good things for each other.”
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But flash mobs do even more: They can make your body and mind healthier. “There are some really cool things about flash mobs — there’s exercise, there’s learning going on and certainly, there’s fun,” says Brandon Alderman, an assistant professor in Rutgers University’s Department of Exercise Science and Sport Studies.
Here are three more reasons to get your flash on:
1. Flash mobs are a fun way to exercise body and mind.
Whoever says fitness can’t be fun hasn’t tried a flash mob — or, equally likely, hasn’t considered that a flash mob is fitness. But the routines, which usually involve dancing and always involve movement, might be as good for your body as your mood.
“Dance in general is a great way to exercise,” says Paula Thomson, a kinesiology professor and dance coordinator at California State University-Northridge, who choreographed the psychology conference flash mob in the District of Columbia in August.
Zumba, for one, has been linked to decreases in body weight and fat, as well as improved aerobic fitness and motivation to exercise . Other studies have detailed the numerous benefits of dance, from bolstering heart health to warding off depression.
“Physically, it encourages people to move and realize that moving can be fun,” Thomson says.
Learning a flash mob routine — as opposed to taking up a more habitual exercise such as walking or climbing the StairMaster — engages your brain as well as your body. And, “by doing both [simultaneously] you actually really enhance the effects rather than doing each individual one alone,” says Alderman, whose preliminary research suggests that we think better when we’re moving, and we exercise better when we’re thinking.
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2. Flash mobbers challenge their inhibitions.
When Vega was waiting in the San Jose Macy’s to dance, she had one worry: What if she missed her cue? But Vega soon learned her concern was wasted energy. “No one knows if you screw up — that was the best part,” she says. “When do you have that opportunity?”
That sentiment is precisely what can make flash mobs such a mentally healthy experience, psychologists say. Whether you have diagnosed social anxiety or just fret too much about what other people think of you, joining a flash mob can be a liberating — and hilarious — way to silence your inner critic.
“When somebody is going through the flash experience, it’s easier to take risks, there’s less of a chance of being individual,” says Charlie Brown, a performance psychologist in Charlotte, North Carolina, who participated in the psychology conference flash mob. “It’s a chance to go out and do something ridiculous … and when you do that, you stretch your boundaries.”
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3. Flash mobs connect people .
Thomson, the choreographer, used to think large psychology conferences were impersonal; it was easy to get lost in the crowd. Her perspective, however, changed this summer, when she connected with dozens of other professionals to perform. “It was an incredible way of creating an interdisciplinary, warm environment,” Thomson says.
Facilitating that human connection is perhaps the most significant benefit of flash mobs, Brown says. “One of the biggest challenges we have — particularly in the age where relationships are more Internet-based — is to be able to have actual personal contact and to be able to deal with an interactive group,” he says. “To be able to go from the URL to the IRL [in real life] is really a wonderful experience.”
Indeed, connecting with others — even momentarily — is linked to positive mental health effects. In a 2014 study out of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, for example, people who were instructed to talk to strangers during their morning commutes had more positive experiences than public transportation riders who kept mum. In another experiment in the same study, patients in a waiting room felt just as good after being chatted up as those who did the chatting, suggesting that conversation-fueled happiness is contagious.
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But you don’t have to participate in a flash mob to reap some of its social benefits, says Jerri Lynn Hogg, a media psychologist at Fielding Graduate University. After all, doing so frequently is an inconvenient prescription for good health. Simply watching a video online and then sharing it with friends is “the same kind of idea that we want to connect and we want to be part of something that’s even bigger than ourselves,” she says.
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Why Flash Mobs are Good for Your Health originally appeared on usnews.com
Correction 10/15/14: A previous version of this story misstated the city of the California flash mob. It took place in San Jose.
