Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle bam here. Let's say someone cuts you off on the highway, so you flip him the bird. You're mad and now he's mad. You both get to where you're going and snap. But you're unsuspecting friends, family, or colleagues, who in turn flings some vitriol at others, and so the cycle continues. Rudeness is unpleasant, but it's also highly contagious and can affect your physical and mental health.
That's according to Danny Wallace, author of f You Very Much, Understanding the Culture of Rudeness and What we can Do about it. Before the article this episode is based on HOS to Work, spoke with Wallace. He said, when someone has been truly rude to you and broken the rules of civilty, it's very confusing, which is one reason why people can't think of anything witty to say in the moment as a retort and big as you've been disrespected, you're trying to claw back some of that respect somehow.
This is why Wallace said, you keep replaying incidents of rudeness over and over in your head, particularly when you didn't make the perfect comeback at the time, and rudeness is contagious, he notes in an article published in the January issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers cited three separate studies that showed that if someone was rude to you, you were more likely to behave uncivilly towards
someone else. So if you were cut off driving to work later, you might open an email from a colleague that asks will you be at today's meeting and feel they're implying that you're going to skip it without a good reason. Even if you merely witnessed a rude interaction between two strangers, you became more likely to be nasty to someone else. Rudeness affects your brains frontal lobes, the area responsible for working memory, and those feelings can make
your work stuff. Her research shows that your creativity and job performance knows dive when someone is nasty to you. That's because rudeness is emotionally draining. One of the most chilling aspects of uncivil behavior is that it can affect health and safety. Wallace says that a study on surgeons in Israel showed that rudeness made them fifty less effective. They didn't communicate well, picked up the wrong instruments, and
missed changes that affected their initial diagnosis. Despite this alarming intel, there is hope the workplace rudeness can be addressed through plans of actions set up by management. In fact, some scientists are working on a rudeness fact scene for doctors, a video game that they could play when they come to work to take a breath and reset their minds. The simple awareness of incivilities contagion can help you monitor your own behavior so that you don't pass it on.
Today's episode is based on the article why Rudeness is so Compagious on How stuff Works dot com, written by Melanie Redzii McManus. For more from Danny Wallace about rudeness, check out the podcast Part Time Genius. They interviewed Wallace for an episode titled Are We in the Middle of a Rudeness Epidemic? Rain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com, and it's
produced by Tyler Clain. Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.