Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks
Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1320040111
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发表时间：
2014-06-17
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Hancock, Jeffrey T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kramer, Adam D. I.;Guillory, Jamie E.;Hancock, Jeffrey T.
情绪状态可以通过情绪传染传递给他人，导致人们在不知不觉中体验到相同的情绪。情绪传染在实验室实验中已得到充分证实，人们会将积极和消极的情绪传递给他人。来自大型现实世界社交网络历时 20 年收集的数据表明，持久的情绪（例如抑郁、快乐）可以通过网络传递 [Fowler JH, Christakis NA (2008) BMJ 337:a2338]，尽管结果存在争议。在一项针对 Facebook 用户的实验中，我们通过减少动态消息中的情感内容量来测试情感传染是否发生在人与人之间的面对面互动之外。当积极的表达减少时，人们产生的积极帖子就会减少，而消极的帖子就会增加；当消极表达减少时，就会出现相反的模式。这些结果表明，其他人在 Facebook 上表达的情绪会影响我们自己的情绪，构成通过社交网络大规模传播的实验证据。这项工作还表明，与普遍的假设相反，面对面的互动和非语言暗示对于情绪传染来说并不是严格必要的，对他人积极经历的观察对人们来说也是一种积极的经历。
Emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness. Emotional contagion is well established in laboratory experiments, with people transferring positive and negative emotions to others. Data from a large real-world social network, collected over a 20-y period suggests that longer-lasting moods (e.g., depression, happiness) can be transferred through networks [Fowler JH, Christakis NA (2008) BMJ 337:a2338], although the results are controversial. In an experiment with people who use Facebook, we test whether emotional contagion occurs outside of in-person interaction between individuals by reducing the amount of emotional content in the News Feed. When positive expressions were reduced, people produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts; when negative expressions were reduced, the opposite pattern occurred. These results indicate that emotions expressed by others on Facebook influence our own emotions, constituting experimental evidence for massive-scale contagion via social networks. This work also suggests that, in contrast to prevailing assumptions, in-person interaction and nonverbal cues are not strictly necessary for emotional contagion, and that the observation of others' positive experiences constitutes a positive experience for people.