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Haeffel and Hames measured the way students in their study tended to frame such situations when they first arrived at Notre Dame. The researchers were then able to track pairs of roommates who had similar thinking styles and see whether and how their thought patterns changed, in comparison to roommate pairs who started out with very different thinking styles.

Haeffel says he was surprised to find that within just three months, the roommates with different styles began to “infect” one another.

“These thinking styles were contagious,” he says. “If you came to college and your roommate had a very negative thinking style, your own thinking style became more negative.”

Haeffel says that it “seems counterintuitive that you can catch someone’s style of thinking like you could catch a cold or the flu.” But six months after living with a roommate with a negative thinking style, some formerly cheerful students were showing signs of cognitive vulnerability known to put them at risk for depression.

Why, yes, one of my roommates did email me this article. [NPR]