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It’s cold and flu season, as we all know. It seems like it’s impossible to go anywhere these days without running into someone coughing and sneezing all over you.
But by this time, you probably know how good you are at recovering from colds and flus. Or at least, you think you know.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University decided to measure just how well we actually know our ability to recover from these viruses.
They asked 360 adults, all healthy, all between the ages of 18 and 55, to assess their own health. They were to describe it as “excellent,” “very good,” “fair,” or “poor.”
Then, participants were exposed to the common cold.
Next, the study participants were exposed to the common cold. Their symptoms were tracked for five days afterward.
One third of participants developed colds.
None of the participants reported poor health, and only two reported fair health. But those who reported their health as excellent were right—they didn’t get colds. Those on the moderate side, from fair to very good, were twice as likely to develop colds.
So what does this mean?
Researchers believe that people are good at measuring their own health because once they’re exposed to a risk of colds, they tune in to their bodies much more, looking for any cold-related symptoms.
Researchers wondered if participants could have been so good at predictions due to their thought processes about it.
If they believed their immune system was strong enough to fight off the cold, they willed themselves to overcome symptoms. This is part of a theory known as socioemotional development, which says that people are influenced by their past experience. Thus, if they believed they’d get sick, they did.
So if you feel yourself developing cold symptoms, it may sound cheesy, but it may be effective to just believe in yourself. Or at least, believe in your ability to overcome your symptoms. It may save you medical costs and days of cold symptoms.
