Emotional Contagion

It’s Friday morning, and you’re having a great start to the day. Sitting at your desk at work, your regular morning coffee has kicked in, you’re well ahead on your to-do list, and you’re starting to think ahead to the exciting weekend plans you have with friends and family. 

Just then, your office bestie walks in, visibly deflated and in a bad mood. They slump into their chairs, sigh very loudly, and mutter under their breath something about canceled trains and how everything in their project is a mess. They don’t say much, but the air shifts and the positive energy in the room evaporates. You soon notice your shoulders tensing and your positive thoughts disappearing. You’re not upset as such, but suddenly you’re not all that upbeat either. Your colleague’s mood, without a word directed at you, has bled into yours. 

This is an example of emotional contagion: the “transfer” of emotion from one person to another, leading individuals to experience the same feelings as those around them without their awareness. While we’re not directly receiving the emotion, we’re automatically mimicking and synchronizing our facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of the other person and, consequently, converging emotionally.⁵

Emotional contagion is a form of social contagion, a phenomenon that involves the spontaneous spread of behaviors, emotions, or conditions through a group or network of people. We experience emotional contagion every day of our lives. It could be smiling when we see a toddler playing and laughing carelessly, feeling excited as a crowd cheers at a sports match, or suddenly starting to cry while watching a movie character break down with sadness. Emotional contagion can occur between two individuals, or in large groups—in fact, social contagion (and more specifically, emotional contagion) is a key component in mass hysteria events.² 

According to organizational behaviorists Sigal Barsade, Constantinos Coutifaris, and Julianna Pillemer, emotional contagion can be understood as involving four key components:

1. It includes both specific emotional reactions and broader mood states.
2. It operates through both unconscious and deliberate mechanisms, with individuals acting as both sources and recipients.
3. It can emerge in interactions ranging from one-on-one encounters to group settings, organizations, or even society-wide, potentially triggered by multiple people. 
4. It functions as a form of social influence that shapes not only emotional responses but also subsequent thoughts and behaviors.

In terms of what causes emotional contagion, research suggests that three core mechanisms are responsible:⁵

1. Mimicry: People unconsciously and automatically mimic the facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements of others during interactions. This imitation is rapid, subtle, and often not consciously noticed. For example, if you’re sitting with another person and they are resting their head on their hand, you might find yourself in the same position as well. 
2. Feedback: Once mimicry occurs, the feedback from our own facial expressions, posture, and tone of voice actually influences our own emotional experience. This is based on the idea that expressing an emotion physically can intensify or generate that emotion internally. For instance, furrowing your brow might increase feelings of frustration or sadness.
3. Contagion: As a result of mimicry and feedback, we begin to “catch” the emotions of those around us. The emotional state of one person can therefore trigger a similar emotional state in another, even without words. This contagion effect is supported by neurological findings, including the role of mirror neurons, which fire both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing the same action.⁷