How do you feel with others' emotions?

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A lot of recent research highlights the impact of one's social network on their life. Why is that we are influenced by people who sometimes we even do not know? Is there some kind of benefit underlying the emotional contagion between human beings?

Sure, there is, and it has been with us for ages. But first, to define this phenomenon we will be following the idea presented in the article of Elaine Hatfield, John T. Cacioppo and Richard L. Rapson that emotional contagion is 'the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person's and, consequently, to converge emotionally'. From the evolutionary point of view, the spread of emotions is beneficial and important for survival, because – for example – when a predator is coming the emotional arousal can spread from animal to animal, enabling them to runaway and find a safer place. Recently, researchers at University of Chicago observed that rats became distressed when they saw other rats in distress, or they displayed pain behavior if they saw other rats in pain, suggesting that the most principal form of empathy is well known to other species. But emotional contagion serves human beings as well, it was helpful to our ancestors, enabling them to understand each other in a time before verbal communication was possible.

People share emotions, both positive and negative ones. In fact, we do so even through use of electronic devices, spreading our emotions with phone calls, emails or tweets, affecting the moods of others. When one is smiling at you, you smile back, even if it is a stranger. This is known as imitation. If someone cries, you experience more or less sadness and/or urge to help. In small children such contagion is irresistible, you can ask a kindergarten staff to hear that one crying kid means all kids will be in tears, in just a few minutes. As adults we are more developed in emotional management, we've learned how to live with our emotions and control them. But different people can stand on different levels of their ability to catch others' emotions. Not everyone will feel the same emotion as you and in same magnitude, even if it is your best friend.

If you would like to see how contagious are others' emotions for you, log into our website: www.beyondthepurchase.org and take the Emotional Contagion Scale.