Emotional Contagion And Physical Proximity

Last week, we started putting words to a concept that makes inherent sense: the idea that emotions are contagious. We talked about how our brains fall into the manner of copying the feelings and expressions of those to whom we are emotionally close. Today, we're going a step farther.

Physical proximity can also affect our mood and behavior. Social psychologists found that putting motivated people next to highly motivated people increased motivation and improved performance. Conversely, it was found that when office workers were seated next to unmotivated officemates, their performance went down, even when they were working on different task and there was no verbal interaction. Lisa Feldman Barrett, professor of psychology at Northeastern University explains, “We are constantly regulating each other’s nervous systems.”

Basically, our primitive emotional contagion response that we discussed last week automatically mimics facial expressions postures and movements. This explains one of the ways the emotions of those around us get induced within us. Does this mean we are have to be at the mercy of everyone else moods? It is not easy but there are things we can do to protect ourselves.