Emotional contagion

Emotional contagion refers to the tendency of individuals to mimic the emotions of others. This is an unconscious sharing of another’s emotional state. Clues to another person’s emotions include facial expressions—smiles, frowns, furrowed brow—and tone of voice. Examples include an individual who begins to feel sad when a friend talks about the death of a parent the individual never met, or sharing in another’s happiness about an approaching wedding.

It can occur between two people, but also within large groups. This could lead to heightened emotions that could have consequences. For example, emotional contagion could affect a group of workers if an individual’s unhappiness with working conditions spreads or cause widespread panic in a neighborhood if an individual is worried about crime. Emotional contagion also may be a factor when many well-regarded public speakers are praised for inspiring people to act.

Background

Emotions are a survival mechanism that emerged early in human development. They help to motivate people and draw attention to a concern. Emotions and emotional connections are crucial to species’ survival. For this reason, it is vital that humans be able to understand each other’s emotions and act on them. Emotional responsiveness can be akin to herd animals recognizing signals of fear or distress from a member of the group and acting to escape danger. It also can be compared to animals happily feeding in an area, which alerts others of the potential reward of food. Emotional responsiveness can aid social interactions, as when individuals avoid contact with a member of the group who is particularly angry or seek to console an individual who is distraught.

The face is the primary signaling system of human emotions. It is made up of many muscles, which can create myriad nuances of expression. This is especially true around the eyes and mouth, where many small muscles are located. These are the areas of the face where babies tend to focus their attention when looking at their parents. The skin, too, is important in conveying emotion; it can go pale or flush. Vocal inflection is another key means of communicating emotions.

Researchers have studied humans in many societies throughout the ages and compared their emotions. They believe humans have a core set of emotions that developed throughout early human history. These include anger, distress, enjoyment, fear, interest, shame, and surprise. Disgust, or a reaction to noxious tastes, and dissmell, a reaction to noxious smells, are also included in this list. Infants are able to recognize these core emotions from an early age. Anger is shown by narrowed eyes, a frown, a clenched jaw, and a red face. Signs of distress are arched eyebrows, crying/tears, downturned corners of the mouth, and sobbing. Enjoyment is shown with a smile, the lips wide and up. Fear freezes the eyes open; parts of the face may tremble and hair stands up, while the skin may be cold, pale, and sweating. Interest is signaled with concentrated looking and listening; the mouth may be slightly open, while eyebrows may be slightly raised or lowered. Shame is shown with lowered eyelids; the muscles of the face and neck may be slack, causing the head to hang down. Surprise is signaled with eyes wide open and blinking, eyebrows up, and the mouth in an O shape. While these are some of the core emotions, studies have found that people can distinguish among 135 emotions.

Overview

Many researchers in neuroscience have noted a link between emotional contagion and automatic mimicry. This refers to people’s automatic alignment with others during social interactions. They adopt facial expressions, postures, and other physical states that are similar to each other. Studies have found that the heart rates of individuals in a social interaction also align. Automatic mimicry, which has also been studied in a variety of primates, appears to be related to feelings of empathy and is regarded as the first aspect of emotional contagion. Automatic mimicry affects how those interacting feel. Humans not only convey their emotions through their facial expressions and stance, but also are impacted by these physical changes. Frowning makes people feel sad, scowling makes them feel angry, and smiling makes them feel happy. Automatic alignment helps to align emotions. Researchers believe it is one element of evolutionary development that has allowed humans to live and work together.

Studies have found that leaders have a stronger emotional impact on members of a group. The leader’s positive or negative mood predominates among group members. The leader’s upbeat mood has a strong positive influence on the group’s ability to work well together, while a leader’s negative mood hinders group performance. Some researchers have found profound implications of the importance of emotional contagion in the workplace. For example, one study found that radiologists were more accurate in their readings when in a positive mood. Yet a positive mood is not always best. Individuals are more likely to thoroughly think through a decision-making process when in a negative mood.

Sigal Barsade has researched emotional contagion extensively. She has advocated for workplaces to focus on corporate affects to improve employee satisfaction and performance. Emotional culture, she says, influences teamwork and burnout. It also can have a profound impact on a business’s effectiveness and success. For example, she notes that investment businesses should encourage healthy fear in employees to prevent them from making risky decisions. Healthcare workers should have leaders who show compassion to patients, leading the team to demonstrate the same care and concern. Group anger, fear, and sadness, on the other hand, usually result in poor performance, high turnover, and other negative outcomes. For these reasons, it is important that leaders be chosen carefully and encouraged to foster an appropriate emotional culture. This may be difficult to achieve, however; studies have found that many professionals are more comfortable expressing anger on the job than showing positive emotions such as joy.

Emotional contagion exists in interactions on social media as well. Research has found that users who see more positive or negative posts are influenced to do the same. The effects of emotional contagion could have an impact on studies of social media, such as suggested links to suicide and the effects and motivations of trolls. Emotional contagion is also a factor in marketing and promoting such as creating a meme or social media strategy that elicits emotions in viewers to encourage them to share it.

Bibliography

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Barsade, Sigal, and Olivia A. O’Neill. “Manage Your Emotional Culture.” Harvard Business Review, Jan.-Feb. 2016, hbr.org/2016/01/manage-your-emotional-culture. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

Barsade, Sigal G. “The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and Its Influence on Group Behavior.” Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 4, Dec. 2002, pp. 644–675, www.jstor.org/stable/3094912. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

Flora, Carlin. “Protect Yourself from Emotional Contagion.” Psychology Today, 14 Jan. 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201906/protect-yourself-emotional-contagion. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

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