Each year we work to avoid catching the latest flu virus or seasonal cold, but there is

another epidemic and no one is immune it's called emotional contagion.

Emotional contagion is a term psychologists use when emotions spread from person to
person, influencing the moods and behaviors of others. Weve all felt this shift. Ever had
a day when youre feeling good at work until your grumbling boss comes in, complaining
and criticizing? Soon, youre doing it too. On the flip-side, perhaps youve felt your sad,
anxious mood lift when your spouse comes home happy and upbeat.
The more you identify with a person, the more likely you are to catch the emotion,
says John Cacioppo, Ph.D., director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience
at the University of Chicago and an expert on emotional contagion. Much of this occurs
and we are completely oblivious to it.
Why emotional contagion happens
Contagion of all kinds is prevalent throughout our lives, says Heidi Grant Halvorson,
Ph.D., a social psychologist and author of Succeed: Proven Strategies to Help Us Achieve
Our Goals, scheduled for release in early 2011. There is evidence, for example, that
people are inspired to pursue a goal when they see others accomplishing goals. We are
also influenced toward healthier behaviors by our healthy friends and family members.
But emotional contagion is more subtle. Though we like to think we are aware of our
emotions and even in control of them, our feelings can be dramatically affected, on a
subconscious level, by those we are close to and by total strangers, Cacioppo says.
It happens, in part, because sharing emotions is a way of connecting with others. We tend
to mimic and match moods, facial expressions and behavior to reach an emotional
agreement, say Cacioppo and Halvorson. If we see someone grieving, we arent going to
bounce in with good cheer. Instead, we shelve our good feelings to match the emotional
environment in a show of support.
Emotional contagion is very functional and has a good purpose it makes our
interactions smoother, it helps us understand one another better and it can be very
motivating, Halvorson says. Its really good stuff, but then you have all this collateral
damage that happens.
Consider the current economic climate. Even if youve not been directly impacted by the
recession, its tough not to feel bad when surrounded by stressed-out people talking
about job losses, home foreclosures and diminished retirement funds. We catch
those negative feelings and carry them with us throughout our day, inadvertently passing
them on to whomever we meet, Cacioppo says.
This happens routinely, with any situation, and that can cause big trouble for our
relationships. If, for example, youre unaware that youve contracted your bosss bad
mood, youre more likely to misdirect those bad feelings at home toward your partner by
complaining, blaming and criticizing.
But, with awareness and the knowledge that emotions spread, you can identify the root
of the emotion and recognize it as a collateral feeling that you were infected with during
the day. Then, you can refrain from passing it on.
Boosting the mood
Sometimes, though, sharing those negative feelings isnt all bad, Halvorson says. In fact,
it can be downright motivating. Political movements often begin when an individual
spreads his feelings of injustice to others who can then work together to invoke
positive change.
And, positive emotions can inspire and uplift entire populations. Have you ever been in
the classroom of a happy, energized teacher or worked with a manager who believed
anything was possible? Its hard not to catch the spirit.
Just as we catch those happy feelings, we need to think about what were casting out.
You have to be aware of the effect your moods are having on one another, Halvorson
says, as both the recipient and as the person sharing your moods with others.
This doesnt mean you need to fake happy feelings if youre down. Its important and
healthy to share sincere emotions. But, how we react to our emotions will influence how
others feel.
Our feelings are there because we need the cues and the information, Cacioppo says.
But, we are not good at recognizing where our emotions come from. We dont need to
kill the emotions or eliminate them to have a better understanding. If we understand how
our emotions cue us differently, then we can make different decisions.
Developing emotional awareness
Notice and name your emotions. Stop and spend a few minutes experiencing the
emotions in your body. Notice what youre feeling physically and then name the emotion.
Is there tension in your back or neck? Maybe its caused by anger or stress. Are you feeling
a fuzzy lightness in your chest? Could that be happiness, love? Dont judge what youre
feeling, or change it. Just learn to recognize it.
Go deeper than the outburst. If youre experiencing powerful emotions, like anger,
consider where the emotional energy is coming from. Could it be residual emotion from a
mood you were infected with hours ago? Identifying where your mood originates for
example, a sad mood could be a result of spending the day with a depressed friend can
keep us from misdirecting our emotions later.
Raise the feeling. Take time before any interaction to tune in to your emotions and shift
them in a more positive direction. Try a quick gratitude exercise: Give thanks for three
things you love in your life. Or set an intention for a patient, kind interaction with the
person youll soon be meeting. Do something to generate good feelings or temper the bad
ones so you have something positive to share. With these tips and the knowledge that
emotional contagion is always at work, you can automatically diffuse its power and
become more aware of the emotions youre both experiencing and sharing with the
world.


Ever noticed how positive attitudes are infectious? You walk into a store, and everyone who works
there is jazzed and happy to be there and energetic and by the time you leave, you have completely
adopted their mood?
Ever noticed that the opposite is also true: Walk into a business where everyone is negative or
apathetic, and you find yourself feeling the same dread and negativity?
Sitting in Houstons Toyota arena with thousands of the worlds most innovative Microsoft partners, I
was reminded of the power that other peoples attitudes and moods have over our own and
remembered a post that Kathy Sierra shared many moons ago on her brilliant but now sadly defunct
Passionate Users blog. It talked about happy vs. angry people, emotional contagion, and the role
mirror neurons play in our involuntary tendency to be drawn into other peoples positive or negative
attitudes. Very cool stuff, and particularly relevant to some of the discussions I have been involved
with in the last few days with some of my international peers. I did some quick digging to find it so I
could share it with you. Here are some of the highlights:
Mirror neurons and our innate tendency to pick up other peoples behaviors, good
and bad.
There is now strong evidence to suggest that humans have the same type of mirror neurons found
in monkeys. Its what these neurons do thats amazingthey activate in the same way when
youre watching someone else do something as they do when youre doing it yourself! This mirroring
process/capability is thought to be behind our ability to empathize, but you can imagine the role these
neurons have played in keeping us alive as a species. We learn fromwatching others. We learn
from imitating (mirroring) others. The potential problem, though, is that these neurons go happily
about their business of imitating others without our conscious intention.
Think about that
Although the neuroscientific findings are new, your sports coach and your parents didnt need to know
the cause to recognize the effects:
Choose your role models carefully.
Watching Michael Jordan will help you get better.
Youre hanging out with the wrong crowd; theyre a bad influence.
Dont watch people doing it wrong watch the experts!
Weve all experienced it. How often have you found yourself sliding into the accent of those around
you? Spend a month in England and even a California valley girl sounds different. Spend a week in
Texas and even a native New Yorker starts slowing down his speech. How often have you found
yourself laughing, dressing, skiing like your closest friend? Has someone ever observed that you and a
close friend or significant other had similar mannerisms? When I was in junior high school, it was
tough for people to tell my best friends and I apart on the phonewe all sounded so much alike that
we could fool even our parents.
But the effect of our innate ability and need to imitate goes way past teenage phone tricks. Spend
time with a nervous, anxious person and physiological monitoring would most likely
show you mimicking the anxiety and nervousness, in ways that affect your brain and body in a
concrete, measurable way. Find yourself in a room full of pissed off people and feel the smile slide
right off your face. Listen to people complaining endlessly about work, and youll find yourself starting
to do the same. How many of us have been horrified to suddenly realize that weve spent the last half-
hour caught up in a gossip sessiondespite our strong aversion to gossip? The behavior of others
were around is nearly irresistible.
Why choosing who you work, play and hang out with matters.
When were consciously aware and diligent, we can fight this. But the stress of maintaining that
conscious struggle against an unconscious, ancient process is a non-stop stressful drain on our
mental, emotional, and physical bandwidth. And no, Im not suggesting that we cant or shouldnt
spend time with people who are angry, negative, critical, depressed, gossiping, whatever. Some
(including my sister and father) chose professions (nurse practitioner and cop, respectively) that
demand it. And some (like my daughter) volunteer to help those who are suffering (in her case, the
homeless). Some people dont want to avoid their more hostile family members. But in those
situationswhere we choose to be with people who we do not want to mirrorwe have to be extremely
careful! Nurses, cops, mental health workers, EMTs, social workers, red cross volunteers, fire fighters,
psychiatrists, oncologists, etc. are often at a higher risk (in some cases, WAY higher) for burnout,
alcoholism, divorce, stress, or depression unless they take specific steps to avoid getting too sucked in
to be effective.
So, when Robert says he wants to spend time hanging around happy people and keeping his
distance from deeply unhappy people, hes keeping his brain from makingover the long term
negative structural and chemical changes. Regarding the effect of mirror neurons and emotional
contagion on personal performance, neurologist Richard Restak offers this advice:
If you want to accomplish something that demands determination and endurance, try to surround
yourself with people possessing these qualities. And try to limit the time you spend with people given
to pessimism and expressions of futility. Unfortunately, negative emotions exert a more powerful
effect in social situations than positive ones, thanks to the phenomena of emotional contagion.
This sounds harsh, and it is, but its his recommendation based on the facts as the neuroscientists
interpret them today. This is not new age self-helpits simply the way brains work.
Emotional Contagion explained.
Steven Stosny, an expert on road rage, is quoted in Restaks book:
Anger and resentment are thet most contagious of emotions, according to Stonsy. If you are near a
resentful or angry person, you are more prone to become resentful or angry yourself. If one driver
engages in angry gestures and takes on the facial expressions of hostility, surrounding drivers will
unconsciously imitate the behaviorresulting in an escalation of anger and resentment in all of the
drivers. Added to this, the drivers are now more easily startled as a result of the outpouring of
adrenaline accompanying their anger. The result is a temper tantrum that can easily escalate into road
rage.
From a paper on Memetics and Social Contagion,
social scientific research has largely confirmed the thesis that affect, attitudes, beliefs and behavior
can indeed spread through populations as if they were somehow infectious. Simple exposure
sometimes appears to be a sufficient condition for social transmission to occur. This is the social
contagion thesis; that sociocultural phenomena can spread through, and leap between, populations
more like outbreaks of measles or chicken pox than through a process of rational choice.
Emotional contagion is considered one of the primary drivers of group/mob behavior, and the recent
work on mirror neurons helps explain the underlying cause. But its not just about groups. From a
Cambridge University Press book:
When we are talking to someone who is depressed it may make us feel depressed, whereas if we talk
to someone who is feeling self-confident and buoyant we are likely to feel good about ourselves. This
phenomenon, known as emotional contagion, is identified here, and compelling evidence for its affect
is offered from a variety of disciplines social and developmental psychology, history, cross-cultural
psychology, experimental psychology, and psychopathology.
[For a business management perspective, see the Yale School of Management paper titled The Ripple
Effect: Emotional Contagion In Groups]
Can any of us honestly say we havent experienced emotional contagion? Even if we ourselves havent
felt our energy drain from being around a perpetually negative person, weve watched it happen to
someone we care about. Weve noticed a change in ourselves or our loved ones based on who we/they
spend time with. Weve all known at least one person who really did seem able to light up the room
with their smile, or another who could kill the mood without saying a word. Weve all found
ourselves drawn to some people and not others, based on how we felt around them, in ways we
werent able to articulate.
Happy People are better able to think logically
Neuroscience has made a long, intense study of the brains fear systemone of the oldest, most
primitive parts of our brain. Anger and negativity usually stem from the anxiety and/or fear response
in the brain, and one thing we know for surewhen the brain thinks its about to be eaten or smashed
by a giant boulder, theres no time to stop and think! In many ways, fear/anger and the ability to
think rationally and logically are almost mutually exclusive. Those who stopped to weigh the pros and
cons of a flight-or-fight decision were eaten, and didnt pass on their afraid-yet-thoughtful genes.
Happines is associated most heavily with the left (i.e. logical) side of the brain, while anger is
associated with the right (emotional, non-logical) side of the brain. From a Society for Neuroscience
article onBliss and the Brain:
Furthermore, studies suggest that certain peoples ability to see life through rose-colored glasses
links to a heightened left-sided brain function. A scrutiny of brain activity indicates that individuals
with natural positive dispositions have trumped up activity in the left prefrontal cortex compared with
their more negative counterparts.
In other words, happy people are better able to think logically.
And apparently happier = healthier:
Evidence suggests that the left-siders may better handle stressful events on a biological level. For
example, studies show that they have a higher function of cells that help defend the body, known as
natural killer cells, compared with individuals who have greater right side activity. Left-sided students
who face a stressful exam have a smaller drop in their killer cells than right-siders. Other research
indicates that generally left-siders may have lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.
And while were dispelling the Happy=Vacuous myth, lets look at a couple more misperceptions:
Happy people arent critical.
Happy people dont get angry.
Happy people are obedient.
Happy people cant be a disruptive force for change.
So can Happy and criticism live happily together?
One of the worlds leading experts in the art of happiness is theDalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1989. Just about everyone who hears him speak is struck by how, well, happy he is. How he
can describewith laughtersome of the most traumatizing events of his past. Talk about perspective
But he is quite outspoken with his criticism of China. The thing is, he doesnt believe that
criticism requires anger, or that being happy means you cant be a disruptive influence for good. On
happiness, he has this to say:
The fact that there is always a positive side to life is the one thing that gives me a lot of happiness.
This world is not perfect. There are problems. But things like happiness and unhappiness are relative.
Realizing this gives you hope.
And among the happy people, theres Mahatma Gandhi, a force for change that included non-violent
but oh-most-definitely-disobedient behavior. A few of my favorite Gandhi quotes:
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their
fellow beings.
The argument for and against anger
But then theres the argument that says anger is morally (and intellectually) superior to happy.
The American Psychological Association has this to say on anger:
People who are easily angered generally have what some psychologists call a low tolerance for
frustration, meaning simply that they feel that they should not have to be subjected to frustration,
inconvenience, or annoyance. They cant take things in stride, and theyre particularly infuriated if the
situation seems somehow unjust: for example, being corrected for a minor mistake.
Of course its still a myth that happy people dont get angry. Of course they do. Anger is often an
appropriate response. But theres a Grand Canyon between a happy-person-who-gets-angry and an
unhappy-angry-person. So yes, we get angry. Happiness is not our only emotion, it is simply the
outlook we have chosen to cultivate because it is usually the most effective, thoughtful, healthy, and
productive.
And theres this one we hear most often, especially in reference to comment moderationif you cant
say whatever the hell you want to express your anger, you cant be authentic and honest. While that
may be true, heres what the psychologists say:
Psychologists now say that this is a dangerous myth. Some people use this theory as a license to hurt
others. Research has found that letting it rip with anger actually escalates anger and aggression and
does nothing to help you (or the person youre angry with) resolve the situation.
Its best to find out what it is that triggers your anger, and then to develop strategies to keep those
triggers from tipping you over the edge.
And finally, another Ghandi quote:
Be the change that you want to see in the world.
If the scientists are right, I might also add,
Be around the change you want to see in the world.
Strong organizations and communities are able to harness the power of emotional contagion to create
engaging, productive and extremely effective collaborative ecosystems. The truly exceptional among
them also manage to extend this collective positivity to their human/customer touchpoints (retail
outlets, salespeople, CSRs, etc.). Obvious examples of this are Starbucks (except in airports), Mac
Stores, and Whole Foods grocery outlets.
This week, a very large scale example of this (and the trigger for this post) was Microsofts Worldwide
Partner Conference in Houston, TX.
The complete opposite of this might be, say, the checkout at Walmart, Home Depot or Taco Bell, a
prison ward, or an Vietnamese sweat shop.
Success breeds success. Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm. Professionalism breeds professionalism.
Likewise, mediocrity breeds mediocrity. Apathy breeds apathy. Negative attitudes breed negative
attitudes.
Now you know. What you do with this knowledge is up to you. For me, the choice is pretty simple.
Always has been.
Have a great Friday. ;)

Emotional Contagion
Both positive and negative emotions can be contagious, with the spillover of negative emotions
lasting longer than positive emotions.
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As you may have experienced in the past, contagion can
be especially salient in a team setting. Research shows that emotions are contagious and that team
members affect one another even after accounting for team performance.
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One explanation for
negative emotions tendency to linger may be a stronger connection to the fight-or-flight situations
people experience. Anger, fear, and suspicion are intentionally unpleasant messages urging us to
take action immediately. And to make sure we get the message, these emotions stick around.
Research shows that some people are more susceptible to emotional contagion than others.
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But
in general, when the boss is happy, the staff is happy.
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We can also imagine how negative
emotions can be transferred. Imagine youre working behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant.
Your mood is fine, until a customer argues with you about an order. You argue back. The customer
leaves in a huff. Your anger emotions continue, turning into negative feelings that last throughout the
day. As you might guess, you are more likely to make mistakes and find ordinary challenges
annoying when youre experiencing negative emotions. Unchecked, your negative emotions can
spread to those around you. A negative interaction with one customer can spill over onto interactions
with another customer.
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OB Toolbox: Practice Changing Your Emotions
Olympic athletes train for peak performance by stimulating their brains to believe theyve just run a record
race. You can do the same thing to experience different moods. By providing your brain with the external
stimulus of happiness or sadness, you can create those feelings. Give it a try!
Its best to practice this when you are feeling relatively calm. To give yourself a neutral starting point, close
your eyes and breathe in slowly. Now, release your breath. Open your eyes and smile wide. Allow your eyes to
crinkle. Now smile a bit more.
The changes you have consciously made to your expression are signaling your body that a positive event has
taken place. How does this affect you emotionally?
Answer these questions to find out:
Do you feel more or less energetic as you smile? More or less calm? More or less optimistic? How does the
feeling resulting from your physical changes compare with your feelings a moment before?
Now, lets try the opposite: Close your eyes and breathe in and out slowly, as detailed above, to clear your
emotional slate. Then open your eyes. Pull down the corners of your mouth. Open your eyes wide. You have
just signaled to your body that something negative has taken place.
Note your feelings using the list above. How do these feelings compare with your feelings of intentional
happiness?
Now consider this: Dr. Aston Trice of Mary Baldwin College in Virginia found that humor has mood-altering
effects. Subjects were given a frustrating task. Then, one-half were shown cartoons. Those who had seen the
cartoons overcame their frustration and attacked a new test with renewed enthusiasm and confidence,
compared to those subjects who hadnt had the humorous interlude.
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Key Takeaway
Emotions serve many purposes and affect people at work. There are positive and negative emotions, and both
can be helpful at motivating us to work harder. Emotions are malleable and they can also be contagious.
Exercises
1. How easy do you think it is to manage ones emotions?
2. Which types of emotions are most socially accepted in the workplace? Why do you think this is?
3. What are factors that affect your emotions?
4. Share an example of either positive or negative emotional contagion. How did it start and stop?
5. What do you do, if anything, to try to change how you are feeling? How effective are your strategies?

Emotions Are ContagiousChoose Your Company Wisely
Second-hand Emotions: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Most people recognize that they can learn a lot about a person by paying close attention to the
person's emotional reactions. Facial expressions, gestures, voice tone, rate of speechall of these
cues help us figure out how a person is feeling. Is he or she angry? Sad? Nervous? Afraid?
Yet, while we're busy focusing in on the emotional states of others, we usually don't pay much
attention to something equally, if not more importantour own emotional reactions to these social
encounters. Why is this so important? Because emotions are highly contagious, and if you catch a
bad bug, the consequences can be life-threatening..
For centuries, researchers have studied the tendency for people to unconsciously and automatically
mimic the emotional expressions of others, and in many cases actually feel the same feelings simply
by exposure to emotions in social interactions. Studies have found that the mimicry of a frown or a
smile or other kinds of emotional expression trigger reactions in our brains that cause us to interpret
those expressions as our own feelings. Simply put, as a species, we are innately vulnerable to
"catching" other people's emotions.
See All Stories In
In the literature, this process in which a person or a group influences the emotions and affective
behavior of another person or group through the conscious or unconcious induction of emotions is
referred to as emotional contagion (EC). And although study after study has demonstrated what a
powerful impact it can have on our relationshipsdomestic partnerships, friendships, teams,
business relationships, and groups of all kindsinterestingly, we often don't realize how much our
own emotions are influenced by the emotional states of others.

The important question is in what direction are your emotions being influenced.
THE GOOD
Referring to emotions as contagious may connote a negative experience. However, this is not
necessarily true. Being "infected" by another person's happiness or enthusiasm can be a very good
thing. Researchers have found that when subjects "catch" positive emotions from others, they're
more likely to be viewed by others and view themselves as more cooperative and competent. They
also perceive themselves as more collegial (see the research of Sigal Barsade). Simply put, when
you hang out with happy people, you tend to feel happier, have more energy, and feel less stressed.
Similar results have been found in team sports. When a team is upbeat, positive, and in an overall
good mood, this spirit is transferred to individual players. Results also show that when teams are
happier, the athletes on the team tend to play better (see the work of Peter Totterdell).
Some research even suggests that indirect relationships, such as those created by social media, can
affect your happiness. ResearchersNicholas Christakis and James Fowler discovered that
happiness spreads through social networks, much like a virus, which means that you can be infected
with the happiness of someone you've never even met, and vice versa. Christakis and Fowler
explain: "A person's happiness is related to the happiness of their friends, their friends' friends, and
their friends' friends' friendsthat is, to people well beyond their social horizon." They also found
that happy people tend to be in the center of their social networks and that happiness branches out
as they join together with other happy people. They report that each additional happy friend
increases your probability of being happy by about 9 percent. As a comparison, they use past
research (1984) that found that an extra $5,000 in income only increased the probability of being
happy by about 2 percent.
The moral of the story is that catching the "happy" bug from those around you (and maybe even
those "virtually" around you) is a contagion that everyone should try to catch. Just being around
positive people can be energizing, motivating, and inspiring and is likely to help you work more
effectively as partners or as a group.
THE BAD
Of course, the oppostie holds true. EC can occur in the negative direction, adding
significant stress and strain in your life. This is particularly true when negative EC creeps into your
close relationships. Because marriages, partnerships, family connections, and even close
friendships are largely based on emotions, any sadness, fear, or worry on the part of that other
person in your life (child, parent, domestic partner, best friend) can have a profound and lasting
impact on your overall mood and outlook on life.
Research has found that depression in a spouse frequently leads to depression in the partner. The
same holds true for roommates. In addition, children raised by depressed parents are significantly
more likely to be diagnosed with depression. In fact, one family members' depression can bring
down an entire family system. Other emotions, such as anxiety and fear, can have the same effect.
However, negative EC is not isolated to our closest relationships. One bad (e.g., negative) apple can
infect the entire tree regardless of where that tree is planted. Tony Schwartz, author, CEO of The
Energy Project, and Harvard Business Review blogger, shared how this kind of unhealthy contagion
spread quickly through his company after the hiring of a new executive. Schwartz writes, "Soon after
settling in, he [the new hire] began to share his concerns with me. He was doing so, he assured me,
only because he loved working for us, and he was looking out for the well being of the company. He
reported to me, and at first, I appreciated his input." Schwartz goes on to say that over time, the new
hire told him that people were taking advantage of him (Schwartz) and didn't appreciate what they
had at the company. He encouraged Schwartz to be tougher.
Schwartz says, "I began to feel more anxious and suspicious, and others on our team seemed more
tense. The buoyant, productive atmosphere that had characterized our culture for years, even in
tough times, began to seep away." Fortunately, Schwartz eventually realized, through conversations
with other employees, the toxic environment that was being created and spread by this one person
and ultimately fired him. Yet, Schwartz cautions that he didn't even recognize what was happening
until damage had been done to the overall mood of his employees and his company in general. He
confided that once he realized what was going on and his own role in it, he felt "angry and abashed.
My most important job is to be our company's Chief Energy Officer. In this case, I'd allowed myself to
be unduly influenced by a destructive kind of energy, and then I had unconsciously communicated
that energy to others."
This example should serve as a strong reminder to leaders that they can have a significant impact
on the emotional state of their employees and the overall work environment, regardless of whether
those emotions are internally produced or externally generated by a negative influence in the
company. Schwartz writes, "Leaders, by virtue of their authority, exert a disproportionate impact on
the mood of those they supervise. In this case, I was influenced simply by the strength of this
executive's negative feelings. Others in the office were more influenced by me, because I'm their
boss. Emotional contagion took hold. As the negativity spread, it drained the energy of our team and
the company as a whole."
THE UGLY
At this point, you may be thinking, if that's the bad, what's the ugly. The ugly is the consequences.
Just as second-hand smoke can have the same or worse effects on the health of nonsmokers,
second-hand emotions (if they're the negative kind just described) can have significant, long-lasting
effects on the health and well being of those experiencing them. The negativity keeps pounding
away at you and ultimately results in significant second-hand stress, which as you might expect, has
the same effects on your mind and body as direct stress. The body experiences and interprets it as
one in the same.
Caroline Whang, writing for Ladies Home Journal, notes that workers who deal with trauma victims
on a regular basis often experience serious physical and emotional symptoms such as muscle
tension, fatigue, low energy, insomnia, and depression. She also describes a study of infants out of
the National Jewish Medical and Research Center at the University of Colorado that discovered that
children whose parents are experiencing significant strain are more likely to develop asthma and
autoantibodies that increase their risk for diabetes. Other medical problems, such as heart disease,
have also been linked to second-hand stress.
In addition, second-hand depression or second-hand anger can tear apart families, resulting
in divorce and the significant stressors that divorce often creates in the lives of estranged partners
(and their children, if they have any); or if not divorce, a dysfunctional and draining atmosphere that
sucks up all the positive energy and replaces it with stress, unhappiness, and turmoil.
SIMPLE ENOUGH, RIGHT? NOT REALLY
So it seems easy, right? Surround yourself with positive people and avoid those who emit negativity.
However, that is easier said than done. First, many experts believe that negative emotions are a lot
easier to catch than positive ones. Some believe this is reflective of our evolutionary past wherein
being highly attuned to other people's negative emotions (pain, fear, and disgust) was directly linked
to survival. Those who could pick up on someone else's pain, fear, and disgust were more likely to
survive than those who could not.
Today, fortunately, we don't have to worry about being surprised by a saber-toothed tiger planning
its next dinner. Yet, we still need some degree of emotional mimicry and synchrony skills to live in
harmony with others and to recognize the emotional environment we're in. For example, in a
dangerous situation, or a conflict, or even a sporting competition, reading the emotions of others can
be beneficial. The question becomes how do we modulate these instincts so that they don't have a
negative impact on our well being.
I think the answer, at least partly, is to become much more aware of our natural instinct to mimic the
emotional states of others so that we can use it to our advantage when we can and reduce its impact
on our well being when we need to. Am I suggesting that you should never feel empathy for others
or try to relate to what they're feeling at a bad time in their life? No. What I'm saying is that you
should become highly attuned to the impact that the emotional states of others are having on you
and take care of yourself when you need to for your own emotional well being. Awareness is the key.
ARE SOME MORE VULNERABLE THAN OTHERS?
According to researchers Hatfield, Cacioppo, and Rapson, some people are more vulnerable to EC
than others. They have found that those who are most vulnerable to "catching" others' emotions are
individuals who tend to be attentive and sensitive to the emotions of others. value interrelatedness
over independence and uniqueness, and those whose conscious emotional experiences are heavily
influenced by peripheral feedback. Researcher R. William Doherty has found that susceptibility to
EC is positively associated with affective orientation, emotionality, sensitivity to others, self-esteem,
and more strongly associated with emotional than cognitive modes of empathy. He also discovered
that introverts are more likely to be affected by others' positive emotions whereas "those more
oriented toward external, social reality tend to be more affected by others' negative emotional
expressions."
Hatfield also believes that women tend to be more vulnerable to absorbing the stress and negativity
of those around them because they are more often socialized to attend to the emotional needs of
those around them and to want to please others than are men. And research has found that in
certain contexts women are more suspectible to EC for both positive and negative emotions (see
Doherty, et al., Emotional Contagion: Gender and Occupational Differences).
If you're wondering how vulnerable you are to catching a bad (or a good) case of emotions, check
out my post, The Emotional Contagion Scale, which contains questions developed by Elaine Hatfield
and her colleagues to help you gauge how vulnerable you are to EC.
WHO IS MOST CONTAGIOUS?
Researchers also have investigated the characteristics of people who seem to be highly infectious,
those who seem to pull others into what Hatfield calls their "emotional orbits." Hatfield says these
people tend to experience and convey strong emotions. They also tend to be relatively unaffected, or
at least unresponsive to those around them who are showing emotions that are incompatible with
their own. On the positive side, these are the people who are "the life of the party," the people who
always greet you with a smile and a kind word, the comedians in the room who seem to lift
everyone's mood. On the negative side, these are the chronic complainers, the toxicity in the group,
the ones who drag everyone down.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
In my next article, 5 Ways to Avoid Catching a Bad Case of Emotions, I discuss strategies to overcome
negative EC. But in general, you should start by paying close attention to your feelings in different
settings and when you're with different individuals and groups. If you go to work in a good mood,
then find yourself tense and stressed a short while after walking in the door, that should serve as a
strong signal that you're allowing your workplace to infect you with negative emotions. If you feel
tense when with a significant other or a family member, but you find your mood lifting when you're
away from that person, there's a clue as well. If you learn to attend to these clues in the various
emotional environments you move in and out of during the day, you'll be a step ahead in determining
the best strategies to use to get the most out of your relationships at home, at work, and at play.


Emotional contagion is a scientific term describing the way people's moods can spread to other
people around them. For example, if one family member or co-worker is particularly happy or sad,
everyone else in the group may start to inexplicably feel the same way, sometimes without even
realizing what is causing their reaction. There is still some debate about the exact mechanism
behind emotional contagion, but there have been numerous studies on its effects, and its occurrence
is considered to be fairly well-documented. Some business management experts feel that managing
emotions can be crucial to maintaining a positive work environment, and some people have even
practiced the use of exaggerated emotions as a way of manipulating others.
One of the primary theories about the mechanism behind emotional contagion is the idea that it is
related to ancient animal defense tactics. Most social animals are very sensitive to the moods and
behaviors of other animals in their group, often for the sake of self-protection. If there are a group of
prairie animals all grazing together, and one of them starts to act panicky, the others will generally
become afraid as well, and sometimes the whole group will take off running at the same time. Some
group animals have even more complex behaviors based on mood, and whole groups can be taken
over with playfulness or nervousness all at once.

Another possible reason for emotional contagion in humans is empathy. Most people automatically
try to understand how those around them feel so that they can get a better sense of where everyone
is coming from. In order to do this, they often actually try to experience other people's emotions,
which could potentially lead to experiencing the same moods. Many people also unconsciously
mimic the facial expressions and mannerisms of others, which might have a tendency to inspire
certain moods.
Emotional contagion is thought to be a major factor in business productivity, and the fact that
negative emotions seem to have a stronger effect than positive emotions is one of the main reasons.
If there is one person in a room who's feeling especially down, all those around him could be pulled
into a vortex of negativity, which could make everyone perform less effectively. It's also thought that
emotional contagion might play a big role in the quality of a person's family life.
Some people have tried to make use of emotional contagion as a way of purposefully affecting
people's moods and decisions. For example, a salesman might put on an act of extreme happiness
as a way to make everyone in his audience feel the same way and hopefully help persuade them to
purchase his product. Similar tactics could also be used by a manager at a business to help make
workers feel more positive.
Group emotional contagion, the transfer of moods among people in a group, and its influence on work
group dynamics was examined in a laboratory study of managerial decision making using multiple,
convergent measures of mood, individual attitudes, behavior, and group-level dynamics. Using a 2 times
2 experimental design, with a trained confederate enacting mood conditions, the predicted effect of
emotional contagion was found among group members, using both outside coders' ratings of participants'
mood and participants' self-reported mood. No hypothesized differences in contagion effects due to the
degree of pleasantness of the mood expressed and the energy level with which it was conveyed were
found. There was a significant influence of emotional contagion on individual-level attitudes and group
processes. As predicted, the positive emotional contagion group members experienced improved
cooperation, decreased conflict, and increased perceived task performance. Theoretical implications and
practical ramifications of emotional contagion in groups and organizations are discussed.