Emotional contagion and its relationship to mood

Abstract

Emotional contagion has been defined as "the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person's and, consequently, to converge emotionally" (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994, p. 5). Study 1 explores the influence of personality on emotional contagion. Specifically, I propose that people's susceptibility to emotional contagion will be affected by their stable disposition towards happiness/sadness. Study 2 investigates the impact of a person's short-term (primed) mood on his or her susceptibility to emotional contagion. Two competing theoretical traditions will be compared to investigate just how mood--both stable and short-term--affects contagion.