is contagious. So too, it seems, are being fat, being sad, and a host of other things that we social creatures tend to pick up from each other. In a study published this week in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, scientists picked out one more trait that could be contagious among connected people: making bad business decisions. Researchers had already confirmed that people have a hard time letting go of their own bad investments.
Yawning
For example, someone who buys a lemon of a car or a dilapidated house will, instead of owning up that it was a mistake and cutting their losses, continue to commit to the project and pour more money, effort and emotions into it [Los Angeles Times]
. The key finding in this study, however, was that this bad business psychology can spread to others. On a computer screen, the study participants watched text updates ...
