Emotional contagion

Emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness.

Emotional contagion is a process in which a person or group influences the emotions, or behavior of another person or group through the conscious or unconscious induction of emotion states and behavioral attitudes.

We have an innate tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person’s and, consequently, to converge emotionally.

Emotional contagion appears in the early stages of development, during which there is an incomplete differentiation between the self and the other. A crying baby in a nursery will create a ‘chain reaction’ of other babies crying.

“Emotions are far more contagious than any disease.
A smile or panic will spread through a group of people far faster than any virus ever could”

Seth Godin

You can catch both positive and negative emotions:

• The negative: Research suggests being around someone who’s stressed can increase your own stress levels. Other studies have found the same to be true for depression. Negative contagious emotions, like sadness, fear, anger or stress can be damaging to your overall health. Negative states of mind may increase the risk for heart disease and other health issues over time.
• The positive: You can catch someone else’s good mood and happiness, too. Just being around positive people can be inspiring, energizing and motivating. You feel happier and less stressed. We’ve all heard that laughter is contagious, and a good laugh is known to be good for your health.

Experts believe that negative emotions, like pain, fear and sadness, are more contagious than positive ones. This can be traced back to our survival instinct. Your brain pays more attention to negative emotions because it’s wired to keep you safe. Being able to catch someone’s fear could alert you to an imminent danger.