Emotion Contagion

Psychologists Elaine Hatfield, John T. Cacioppo, and Richard L. Rapson defined primitive emotional contagion in their 1993 research as "the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person's and, consequently, to converge emotionally." Their work demonstrated that people's conscious assessments of others' feelings were influenced by what others said, but people's own emotions were more influenced by nonverbal cues. The process involves two steps: first, we imitate people (e.g., smiling back); second, our emotional experiences change based on the nonverbal signals we give off—smiling makes us happier.