Emotion Contagion
Emotions are contagious. They?are?rapidly, frequently, and?even?at times automatically transmitted?from one person to the next.?Whether?it be?mind-boggling?awe?watching the?supermoon?display?its lunar prowess or?pangs of?anger?observing?palpable racial injustice, one?feature?remains?salient: we can and often?do?“catch”?the?emotions?of others.?The notion that emotions are contagious dates back?as early as 1750s when Adam Smith?documented?the seamless way people tend?to mimic the?emotional?expressions, postures,?and even vocalizations?of the people we interact with.?In the late 1800s,?Charles Darwin?further emphasized?that this?highly contagious nature of emotions?was fundamental to the survival of humans and nonhumans alike in transmitting vital information among?group?members.?These?prescient?observations?underscore the fact that?emotion contagion is pervasive?and universal and, hence, why it ought to be more widely known.?
More recent scientific models of emotion contagion?expound the?features?of,?and mechanisms by which,?we are affected by, and affecting,?the?emotions?of others.?Emotional contagion has been?robustly?supported in laboratory studies?eliciting?transient positive and negative emotion?states?among individual participants?as well as?efforts?outside of the laboratory?focused on?longer-lasting mood states?such as happiness?among large social networks.?Importantly,?emotion contagion matters:?it?is?in the service of?critical?processes?such as?empathy, social connection, and?relationship?maintenance?between?close?partners.??
When disrupted, faulty emotion contagion processes have?been linked to affective disturbances.?With the rapid proliferation of online social networks?as a main forum for emotion expression, we know too that?emotion contagion can occur?without?direct interaction between people or when nonverbal?emotional?cues in the face?and body?are altogether?absent.?Importantly, too, this type of?contagion?itself?spreads?across a variety of other psychological phenomenon?that indirectly or directly involves?emotions ranging from kindness, health-related eating behaviors, and?even?the darker side of?human behaviors including?violence and racism.?Emotion contagion matters, for better and for worse.?
Although well-documented?emotion contagion?warrants room to?widen its own scientific scope.?One?uncharted?domain?my?colleagues Nicholas Christakis, Jamil Zaki,?Michael?Norton, Ehsan Hoque and Anny Dow have been trailblazing is the unchartered realm of positive emotion contagion.?Surprisingly, we know little about the?temporal dynamics of our?positive experiences,?including those that both appear to connect?us with others and should?thereby?propagate?rapidly?(such as joy or compassion)?versus those?that?might?socially isolate ourselves from others (such as hubristic pride).?Given the vital role?positive emotions play in our?well-being?and physical health, it is critical to better understand?the features of how we?transmit these pleasant?states?within and across social groups.?Like waves, emotions cascade across time and geographical space. Yet their ability to cascade across?psychological minds is unique?and warrants?wider recognition.
