Emotional contagion

Emotional contagion is the spread of emotional states between people through processes such as mimicry, feedback, and social interaction. It can occur consciously or without awareness.

Emotional mimicry: The tendency to imitate another person’s facial expressions, posture, gestures, or vocal patterns. Imitating an emotional expression can help reproduce the corresponding feeling.
Group emotion: An emotional state shared or coordinated among members of a group. Repeated interpersonal transmission can produce a group-level emotional climate.
Elaine Hatfield: An American social psychologist known for research on emotional contagion and interpersonal relationships. Her work helped establish emotional contagion as a subject of social-psychological study.
Emotional convergence: The tendency for people’s emotional states to become more similar over time. Convergence is an observed outcome; contagion names one possible transmission process.
Facial feedback hypothesis: The hypothesis that facial muscle activity can influence emotional experience. It offers one account of how mimicked expressions may alter the imitator’s feelings.
Emotional climate: The prevailing pattern of emotions and emotional norms within a group or organization. Contagion helps explain how everyday interactions contribute to a lasting climate.
James Laird: An American psychologist known for experimental research on facial expression and emotional experience. His experiments tested whether adopting facial expressions can change reported feelings.
Emotional empathy: An affective response that involves sharing or resonating with another person’s emotion. Empathy can involve awareness and concern, features not required for contagion.
Nonverbal communication: The exchange of information through channels other than words, including facial expression, gesture, posture, and vocal tone. Many contagion cues pass through nonverbal signals rather than explicit statements.
Leadership: The process of influencing and coordinating people toward shared aims. Leaders’ expressed emotions can shape the feelings and behavior of those they lead.

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