New research suggests we can pick up on both good and bad moods from friends, but depression isn't. The team analyzed data from a long-term study, which included moods and friendship networks. The team's findings imply that mood spreads across friendship networks, as do various symptoms of depression, such as helplessness and loss of interest. But they also found that the effect of friends' lower or worse mood was not strong enough to push the other friends into depression.
Using mathematical modeling, they found that having more friends who suffer from poorer moods is associated with a higher chance of an individual having low moods and a reduced chance of improvement. They found the opposite applied to people who had a more positive social circle.
