Factors affecting susceptibility to emotional contagion among South Indian Hindus residing in India

Abstract

Scholars have long been interested in the process of emotional contagion. It is said to aid in the functions of facilitating social interaction, promoting interpersonal trust, and defining boundaries for social transgressions such as indicating appropriate and inappropriate behaviors within groups. Research on emotional contagion has examined the impact of various factors such as gender, self-construal, and familial relationships, on Amricans' susceptibility to emotional contagion. Unfortunately, scholars have spent little effort determining whether or not the process of emotional contagion exists, or operates in the same way in cultures outside of America - specifically South Asian cultures. They have not, for example, investigated how cultural traits - such as individuals' self-construal - might affect susceptibility to emotional contagion in traditional cultures such as India. This study examines the link between gender, family composition, >urbanization, and self-construal and the susceptibility to emotional contagion among Hindu college students residing in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Specifically, the study examines links between the aforementioned variables and the respondents' scores on the Emotional Contagion (BC) scale, including the five subscales of the EC scale. Results indicate that gender and self-construal are significantly associated with participants' scores on the overall emotional contagion scale, and on some of its subsca1es. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed .