Social contagion

Emotional contagion is the phenomenon of having one person's emotions and related behaviors directly trigger similar emotions and behaviors in other people. One view developed by Elaine Hatfield et al. is that this can be done through automatic mimicry and synchronization of one's expressions, vocalizations, postures and movements with those of another person. When people unconsciously mirror their companions' expressions of emotion, they come to feel reflections of those companions' emotions.Emotions can be shared across individuals in many different ways both implicitly or explicitly. For instance, conscious reasoning, analysis and imagination have all been found to contribute to the phenomenon. Emotional contagion is important to personal relationships because it fosters emotional synchrony between individuals. A broader definition of the phenomenon was suggested by Schoenewolf 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". The behaviour has been found in humans, primates and dogs.

The phrase "emotional contagion" embodies the idea that humans synchronize their own emotions with the emotions expressed by those around them, whether consciously or unconsciously. Psychologists Hatfield, Cacioppo and Rapson, define it as "the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person's and, consequently, to converge emotionally (p. 96) ."

Hatfield theorizes emotional contagion as a two-step process: Step 1: We imitate people, e.g., if someone smiles at you, you smile back. Step 2: Our own emotional experiences changes based on the non-verbal signals of emotional that we give off. For example, smiling makes one feel happier and frowning making one feel worse. Mimicry seems to be one foundation of emotional movement between people.

Emotional contagion and empathy have an interesting relationship, in that they share similar characteristics, with the exception of the ability to differentiate between personal and pre-personal experiences, a process known as individuation. In The Art of Loving, social psychologist Erich Fromm explores these differences, suggesting that autonomy is necessary for empathy, which is not found in emotional contagion.

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