There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

Fear spreads faster than any argument. It travels without being stated, through tone and posture and the speed of somebody’s typing, and it fills a room before anyone has explained what is happening. That is a survival mechanism working badly in modern conditions, where most of what alarms us is not a physical threat. Once a group has caught it, judgement drops all round.

So notice whose state you have absorbed today. In a tense situation, the person who slows their own breathing and speaks at half speed changes the room more than the person with the best analysis. That is available to you, and it is contagious in the other direction.