Emotional Contagion: Can Emotions Really Be Infectious?

Close

You’ve likely heard the expression, “smiling is contagious,” and instantly smiled back when someone flashed a grin at you. Or maybe the phrase, “misery loves company,” and watched as someone else’s sour disposition affected an entire group of people. Or perhaps you’ve noticed that if someone you care about is hurting, you feel pain right along with them.

When you experience any of these phenomena, you’re experiencing emotional contagion.

At a Glance

How to Control Your Emotions When They’re Running High

What Triggers Emotional Contagion?

Emotional contagion occurs when one person responds to the stimuli they feel when seeing another person’s emotions. Early studies found that emotional contagion occurred unconsciously, as a copied behavior based on what someone was observing.But there’s more to it than that. Several psychological factors also have an effect on your emotional response.

Jillian Amodio, LMSWEmotional contagion is a way of describing how emotions or behaviors can spread between individuals and/or groups…Humans are social creatures, and we react and respond to the stimuli in the world around us.

Jillian Amodio, LMSW

Emotional contagion is a way of describing how emotions or behaviors can spread between individuals and/or groups…Humans are social creatures, and we react and respond to the stimuli in the world around us.

“A variety of factors can influence or trigger emotional contagion. These can include verbal communication andnon-verbal communicationsuch as facial expressions and body language. Other environmental factors such as music, aromas, and atmosphere can have an impact as well,” Amodio explains.

Think about a room full of people watching a stand-up comedian. The funny story, and the performer’s actions, cause the contagious emotional response of joy, leading to laughter. As for environmental factors, a room where everything is in order can elicit feelings of peace, calm, and comfort. And that emotion is contagious to everyone who enters.

Advertisers, filmmakers, restauranteurs, retail salespeople, and scores of others rely on emotional contagion to convince you to buy something or evoke a feeling within you.

Negative Emotions Are Easier to Latch Onto

But just as positive emotions can be shared, so can negative feelings. You’re more likely to copy emotions of anger, frustration, or depression when your inhibitions are low.

“Primary things like poor sleep, not having eaten that day, [and] preexisting stress or overwhelm are going to make someone more vulnerable to emotional contagion. Because on a fundamental level, you are already worn thin and more easily swept up in an external emotional current.,” notes Peggy Loo, PhD, licensed psychologist and founding director ofManhattan Therapy Collective.

Whether consciously or not, if you notice your own mood changes, you mirror someone else’s, or you adopt the emotions or feelings of a group, you’re experiencing emotional contagion.

Emotional Contagion Is Linked to Our Neurons

Research shows that there could also be a neurological reason for emulating emotions called the mirror neuron system.Basically, certain neurons in the brain become active when a human observes another human doing something.

The person who is observing then mirrors what they see. With emotions, that means if you see another person crying, laughing, sulking, or smiling, you “mirror” what they do. And their emotions become contagious. Learning to mirror the emotions of our caretakers is actually a developmental milestone for infants, which can help explain why the habit persists.

10 Tips for Improving Your Nonverbal Communication

Stages of Emotional Contagion and Its Impact

Although emotional contagion seems to happen before you even know it, experts say it actually takes place in stages.

Smiling and laughter, of course, are positive ways to share emotions. Not surprisingly, when you smile, mirroring someone else’s emotions, you also feel happier andless stressed.

“We have seen the effects of widespread emotional contagion influence groups and social behaviors in positive ways, such as a smile that keeps going, the connection and excitement we feel at a concert, the feeling of support and community spread at events like memorials and vigils, [and] the joy and excitement of a party,” states Amodio.

Negative contagious feelings have a detrimental effect.

“When it’s negative, emotion contagion can lead to burnout and a disoriented sense of self. As you take on the emotions of others or the environment around you, it can be hard to remain anchored and clear in your own experience or perspective in the moment,” says Dr. Loo.

When that happens on a larger scale or in a group, emotional contagion can lead to a mob-group mentality, spreading violence. It can also foster an atmosphere of fear and widespread panic. The key in any situation is knowing what steps you can take to manage your own emotional contagion.

You Can Increase Your Emotional Intelligence in 3 Simple Steps—Here’s How

Strategies to Help Control Emotional Contagion

Most people would love to manage the negative and harness the positive aspects of emotional contagion. Good or bad, there are steps you can take to manage your reactions.

Life is filled with moments of emotional contagion. The key is knowing how to navigate them and make them work for you.

The Health Benefits of Humor and Laughter

2 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Lu D, Hong D.Emotional contagion: research on the influencing factors of social media users’ negative emotional communication during the covid-19 pandemic.Front Psychol. 2022;13:931835.Bastiaansen JACJ, Thioux M, Keysers C.Evidence for mirror systems in emotions.Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009;364(1528):2391-2404.

2 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Lu D, Hong D.Emotional contagion: research on the influencing factors of social media users’ negative emotional communication during the covid-19 pandemic.Front Psychol. 2022;13:931835.Bastiaansen JACJ, Thioux M, Keysers C.Evidence for mirror systems in emotions.Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009;364(1528):2391-2404.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Lu D, Hong D.Emotional contagion: research on the influencing factors of social media users’ negative emotional communication during the covid-19 pandemic.Front Psychol. 2022;13:931835.Bastiaansen JACJ, Thioux M, Keysers C.Evidence for mirror systems in emotions.Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009;364(1528):2391-2404.

Lu D, Hong D.Emotional contagion: research on the influencing factors of social media users’ negative emotional communication during the covid-19 pandemic.Front Psychol. 2022;13:931835.

Bastiaansen JACJ, Thioux M, Keysers C.Evidence for mirror systems in emotions.Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009;364(1528):2391-2404.

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?