Author Topic: Emotional Contagion  (Read 3961 times)

Leah

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Emotional Contagion
« on: February 16, 2008, 11:28:32 PM »
Emotional contagion is the tendency to express and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others.

One view of the underlying mechanism is that it represents a tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994). A broader definition of the phenomenon was suggested by Sigal G. Barsade- "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".



Factors influencing group contagion

There are several factors which determine the rate and extent of emotional convergence in a group.

Some of these are: membership stability, mood-regulation norms, task interdependence and social interdependence.

Besides these event-structure properties, there are personal properties of the group's members, such as openness to receive and transmit feelings, demographic characteristics and dispositional affect, that influence the intensity of emotional contagion.





Implicit emotional contagion

Unlike cognitive contagion, emotional contagion is less conscious and more automatic. It relies mainly on non-verbal communication, although it has been demonstrated that emotional contagion can, and does, occur via telecommunication. For example, people interacting through Emails and "chats" are affected by the other's emotions, without being able to perceive the non-verbal cues.

One view, proposed by Hatfield and colleagues, describes the emotional contagion process as a primitive, automatic and unconscious behavior. According to them, it takes place through a series of steps. When a receiver is interacting with a sender, he perceives the emotional expressions of the sender. The receiver automatically mimics those emotional expressions. Through the process of afferent feedback, these new expressions are translated into feeling the emotions the sender feels, thus leading to emotional convergence.

Another view, emanating from social comparison theories, sees emotional contagion as demanding more cognitive effort and being more conscious. According to this view, people engage in social comparison to see if their emotional reaction is congruent with the persons around them. In this case, the recipient uses the emotion as a type of social information to understand how he or she should be feeling. [1]

People respond differentially to positive and negative stimuli, and negative events tend to elicit stronger and quicker emotional, behavioral, and cognitive responses than neutral or positive events. Thus, unpleasant emotions are more likely to lead to mood contagion than are pleasant emotions. Another variable that needs to be taken into account is the energy level at which the emotion is displayed. As higher energy causes more attention to it, the prediction is that the same emotional valence (pleasant or unpleasant) expressed with high energy will lead to more contagion than if expressed with low energy


TT posted the link from Wikipedia onto my thread "copycat syndrome" for reference.

Tis' most interesting I feel  -- an altogether fascinating subject.

Leah x
« Last Edit: February 17, 2008, 12:08:57 AM by LeahsRainbow »
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Leah

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Re: Emotional Contagion
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2008, 11:34:07 PM »
Explicit emotional contagion

Contrary to the automatic infection of feelings described above, there are times when others' emotions are being manipulated by a person or a group in order to achieve something. This can be a result of intentional affective influence by a leader or team member.

Suppose this person wants to convince the others in something, he may do so by sweeping them in his enthusiasm. In such a case, his positive emotions are an act with a purpose of "contaminating" the others' feelings. A different kind of intentional mood contagion is by giving the group a reward, or treat, in order to alleviate their feelings.

In the organizational psychology literature, a growing body of research is dedicated to the aspects of emotional labor. In short, it deals with the need to manage emotions so that they are consistent with organizational or occupational display rules, regardless of whether they are discrepant with internal feelings. In regard to emotional contagion, in work settings that require a certain display of emotions, one finds himself obligated to display, and consequently feel, these emotions. In a process where surface acting develops into deep acting, emotional contagion is the byproduct of intentional affective impression management


This one looks interesting to say the least !!!   :shock:

Leah x

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Leah

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Re: Emotional Contagion
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2008, 11:35:55 PM »

Intragroup emotional contagion

Many organizations and workplaces are currently encouraging team-work. This is a move driven by studies conducted by organizational pschologiests that highlight the benefits of work-teams. Also, putting people together as a group and expecting everything to pass quietly is being naïve. Emotions come into play and a "group emotion" is formed.

The group's emotional state has an influence on factors such as cohesiveness, moral, rapport and the team's performance. For this reason, organizations need to take into account the factors that shape the emotional state of the work-teams, in order to harness the beneficial sides and avoid the detrimental sides of the group's emotion. Managers and team leaders should be even more cautious with their behavior, since their emotional influence is greater than that of a "regular" team member. It has been shown that leaders are more emotionally "contagious" than others.[
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teartracks

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Re: Emotional Contagion
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2008, 11:36:10 PM »



Leah,

Does one of us suffer from Emotion Contagion?  :lol:  Looks like it considering that we have identical threads.

tt

Leah

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Re: Emotional Contagion
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2008, 11:39:43 PM »


Hi TT   you posted the link for me onto my "Copycat Syndrome" thread   :lol:   ROFL.

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Leah

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Re: Emotional Contagion
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2008, 11:43:35 PM »

Emotional contagion is the tendency to express and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others.

One view of the underlying mechanism is that it represents a tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994). A broader definition of the phenomenon was suggested by Sigal G. Barsade- "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".



Factors influencing group contagion

There are several factors which determine the rate and extent of emotional convergence in a group. Some of these are: membership stability, mood-regulation norms, task interdependence and social interdependence.

Besides these event-structure properties, there are personal properties of the group's members, such as openness to receive and transmit feelings, demographic characteristics and dispositional affect, that influence the intensity of emotional contagion.


WOW !

Leah x



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_contagion
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teartracks

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Re: Emotional Contagion
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2008, 11:48:21 PM »




Hi Leah,

You are right.  Then I thought the subject deserved it's own thread.  I'll delete.

tt

Leah

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Re: Emotional Contagion
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2008, 11:51:52 PM »

Hi TT

No probs.  Are you familiar with this subject?

It is quite fascinating, interesting, overall.

Leah x
Jun 2006 voiceless seeking

April 2008 - "The Gaslight Effect" How to Spot & Survive by Dr. Robin Stern - freedom of understanding!

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