Emotional Contagion In Communication

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Emotional contagion is a pervasive and essential phenomenon in organizational settings, and yet there is little information about the range of mechanisms that link the affective states of multiple individuals (Elfenbein, 2014). Regardless of intentionality, research in emotional contagion (Hatfield et al., 1994; Barsade, 2002) explains how emotions may spread through a workgroup via both verbal and straightforward nonverbal exchanges. Some studies began to explore emotional contagion in an organizational setting. Wherein, leader's displays of happiness enhance followers' creative performance, whereas a leader's displays of sadness enhance followers' analytical performance (Visser et al., 2013). However, followers and leaders in an organization…show more content…
Evidence revealed that emotional contagion is stronger in in-groups and out-groups (Barsade, 2002). It is observed commonly that some people get affected by the emotions prevalent in the group, whereas others appear to be unaffected by it (Vijayalakshmi & Bhattacharyya, 2011). Positive emotional contagion among group members have experienced increased perceived task performance, improved cooperation and decreased conflict (Barsade, 2002). Therefore, emotional contagion through its direct and indirect influence on employees' and work teams' emotions, judgments, and behaviors, can lead to subtle but essential ripple effects in groups (Barsade,…show more content…
However, emotional contagion does not all the time take place because emotional susceptibility is affected by differences. It was proposed by Hatfield et al. (1994), that people who are emotionally susceptible are those who pay attention to others and can read others' emotional expressions. Also, people who construe themselves as interrelated with others rather than unique and independent, tend to mimic facial, postural, vocal, and expressions; and (d) have a conscious emotional experience that is powerfully influenced by peripheral feedback. However, evidence in this respect is still meager and contradictory (Riggio et al., 1989; Levenson and Ruef, 1992; Blairy et al., 1999). The study also showed for the first time that susceptibility to emotional contagion is related to the ability to discriminate sincerely and faked enjoyment expressions. On the other hand, the relationship between positive mood and susceptibility to emotional contagion of happiness is strong (Bhullar,
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