We are interested in the 3-Calabi-Yau categories D arising from quivers with potential associated to a triangulated marked surface S (without punctures). We prove that the spherical twist group ST of D is isomorphic to a subgroup (generated by braid twists) of the mapping class group of the decorated marked surface S_Delta. Here S_Delta is the surface obtained from S by decorating with a set of points, where the number of points equals the number of triangles in any triangulations of S. For instance, when S is an annulus, the result implies that the corresponding spaces of stability conditions on D are contractible.