Affect contagion: Exploring the catalytic effects of status

人们从多种来源检测他人的情绪、想法和意图--他们的声音、姿势、面部表情和行为。情感传染，即情绪状态(如压力、感觉、评价)从一个人到另一个人的传播，在社会科学中用各种方法进行研究：社会学家发现快乐在社交网络中是会传染的，社会心理学家表明模仿其他人的行为会增加好感，神经学家证明观察一个人经历痛苦会产生类似的神经激活。在这个项目中，研究小组将研究群体中情感传染的前兆和后果，包括社会地位的作用。这项工作提供了关于群体动力学的新知识，将确定情绪如何以及为什么在个体之间传播。这些发现可以加强我们对影响来自各种对美国社会重要的群体(如军队、家庭和医疗队)的团队成员的人际过程的理解和改进。研究团队还计划与旧金山探索博物馆合作，开发向参观者传授如何实现人际同步以及它如何影响人类社交互动的展品。旧金山探索博物馆是一家面向所有年龄段的科学博物馆和学习实验室。研究小组提出了三项研究，以检验影响传染。为了检验这一点，研究人员将评估生理反应。第一项研究将考察不同类型的影响(即，积极或消极)和唤醒强度影响如何影响传染病。还将评估配对参与者的感知状态。第二项研究将通过关注与地位较低的(本科生)或地位较高的(居民)伴侣配对的医学生，研究地位角色如何影响传染；最后一项研究将实验性地操纵二元体内的地位。结合复杂的心理生理学测量和统计模型，这些研究将彻底检查影响如何在二元体中传播，以及社会地位在捕捉他人情绪方面的重要作用。

People detect the emotions, thoughts, and intentions of others from multiple sources - their voice, posture, facial expressions, and behavior. Affect contagion, the spread of emotional states (e.g., stress, feelings, evaluations) from one person to another, is studied in a variety of ways in the social sciences: sociologists find that happiness is contagious within social networks, social psychologists show that mimicking the behavior of others increases liking, and neuroscientists demonstrate that observing someone experience pain produces similar neural activation as experiencing pain. In this project, the researcher team will examine the precursors and consequences of affect contagion in groups, including the role of social status. This work provides new knowledge on group dynamics that will identify how and why emotions spread between individuals. These findings can enhance our understanding and improvement of the interpersonal processes influencing team members from a variety of groups important to American society such as the military, families, and medical teams. The research team also plans to work with the San Francisco Exploratorium, a science museum and learning laboratory for all ages, to develop exhibits that teach visitors how to achieve interpersonal synchrony and how it influences human social interaction. The research team proposes three studies examining affect contagion. To examine this, the researchers will assess physiological responses. The first study will examine how different types of affect (i.e., positive or negative) and arousal intensity influence affect contagion. The perceived status of the paired participants will also be assessed. The second study will examine how status roles influence affect contagion by focusing on medical students who are paired with lower status (undergraduates) or upper status (residents) partners; the last study will experimentally manipulate status within dyads. Integrating sophisticated psychophysiology measures and statistical modeling, these studies will thoroughly examine how affect spreads within a dyad and the important role of social status in catching others' emotions.