Facial mimicry has long been considered a main mechanism underlying emotional contagion (i.e. the transfer of emotions between people). A closer look at the empirical evidence, however, reveals that ...although these two phenomena often co-occur, the changes in emotional expressions may not necessarily be causally linked to the changes in subjective emotional experience. Here, we directly investigate this link, by testing a model in which facial activity served as a mediator between the observed emotional displays and subsequently felt emotions (i.e. emotional contagion). Participants watched videos of different senders displaying happiness, anger, or sadness, while their facial activity was recorded. After each video, participants rated their own emotions and assessed the senders' likeability and competence. Participants both mimicked and reported feeling the emotions displayed by the senders. Moreover, their facial activity partially explained the association between the senders' emotional displays and self-reported emotions, thereby supporting the notion that facial mimicry may be involved in emotional contagion.
Emotional contagion has long been conceptualized as the automatic transfer of affective states between people, similar to the spread of diseases. New evidence, however, has challenged this view by ...demonstrating that emotions, contrary to diseases, spread selectively rather than blindly because their transfer is controlled by social factors. Here, we take a closer look at this top-down social control of emotional contagion. We review literature on the moderating role of social factors in emotional contagion and emotional mimicry, a process often considered a basic mechanism of emotional contagion. We argue that top-down social processes controlling emotional mimicry may be explained by the correction hypothesis formulated to account for contrast effects in priming research. We also analyze whether similar corrective processes may be involved in less automatic mechanisms of emotional contagion, such as social appraisal. Finally, we propose that the modulating effects of social factors on emotional contagion and its mechanisms, similar to priming effects, may be interpreted within the framework of dual-process theories.
In the current study, I experimentally examined whether close relationship between a sender displaying affect and a receiver observing it fosters concordant affective reactions to the sender’s ...emotional displays. I recruited participants as pairs of either friends or strangers. One person served as a sender and the other person served as a receiver. The sender watched a happy or sad videotaped man, whereas the receiver observed him/her on the computer screen in a separate room. The results confirmed that the sender caught happiness displayed by the videotaped man and then passed it along to the receiver but only when the pair consisted of friends. When the pair consisted of strangers, this “second-hand” happiness contagion was blocked. The spread of sadness, however, remained unaffected by relationship closeness. This effect was not driven by the receiver’s ability to correctly decode the sender’s emotional expression.
This article explores interpersonal functions of emotional mimicry under the absence versus the presence of visual contact between the interacting partners. We review relevant literature and stress ...that previous studies on the role of emotional mimicry were focused on imitative responses to facial displays. We also show that the rules explaining why people mimic facial expressions may be inapplicable when visual signals are unavailable (e.g., people attending an online meeting have their cameras off). Overall, our review suggests that emotional mimicry functionally adapts to whether the perceiver and the expresser can see each other. We, therefore, argue that blocking visual contact between them may provide insight into emotional mimicry's social functions, thereby clarifying its role in fostering affiliation and emotional understanding.
Objectives
The present study was designed to examine the links between empathy, emotional labor (both surface and deep acting), and emotional exhaustion as well as determine if emotional labor ...mediates the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion in teachers. It was assumed that emotional labor can take two opposite directions (positive mood induction and negative mood induction). Thus, the additional aim of the study was to analyze the mediating role of mood regulation strategies in the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion.
Materials and Methods
A sample of 168 teachers from Łódź and its surroundings completed a set of questionnaires: Emotional Labor Scale; Mood Regulation Scales, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Empathic Sensitivity Scale.
Results
The results provided mixed support for the hypotheses indicating that both types of emotional labor, negative mood induction and emotional exhaustion were positively intercorrelated. Moreover, deep acting was a significant mediator in the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion. The analyzed link was also mediated by negative mood induction, whereas positive mood induction did not emerge as a significant mediator.
Conclusions
The study provided insight into the role of empathy and emotional labor in the development of teacher burnout. It also confirmed that deep acting and negative mood induction mediate the relationship between empathy and emotional exhaustion in teachers.
Emotional tears represent a basic expressive response that is most likely unique to humans. Researchers have debated the specific function of this phenomenon, with recent propositions suggesting that ...it mainly works as an interpersonal communicative signal motivating observers to provide help and social support to the tearful person. Here, we review evidence when and how emotional tears can act as a social motivator. Based on the emotions as social information (EASI) model, we investigate the importance of emotional expression, observer's inferences, observer's affective reactions, and situational determinants and integrate them to derive a model explaining the interpersonal functions of emotional tears. Overall, most evidence supports the idea that people tearing up, compared to people not tearing up in the exact same situation, are evaluated as less agentic, more communal, and elicit feelings of compassion in observers, which in turn is associated with higher support intentions. These relations are likely moderated by the perceived appropriateness of the expression, which is determined by the characteristics of the expression, the expresser, the observer, and the situation. Our review identifies several gaps, suggesting that the specific relations among the different variables are yet to be determined and methods should focus on more ecologically valid designs and behavioral measures.
•Two studies tested the effects of self-esteem on emotional contagion.•Low self-esteem fostered happiness contagion but only in women.•Self-esteem influenced happiness contagion through the fear of ...rejection.
There is a scarcity of experimental studies on individual differences in susceptibility to emotional contagion (i.e., the transfer of emotions between people). Drawing on the sociometer theory of self-esteem, a social functional approach to emotions, and studies on the relationship between self-esteem and positive and negative emotionality, we predicted that differences in global self-esteem would play a significant role in experimentally induced emotional contagion. To address this link, we conducted two studies. Participants first completed a measure of self-esteem, following which they watched a video presenting a person displaying either happiness or sadness and rated their affective states. Study 1 (N = 207) demonstrated that low self-esteem fostered happiness contagion but only in women. Study 2 (N = 42) found that this relationship was completely mediated by the fear of rejection. Our results support the notion that emotional contagion is a complex social phenomenon that depends on the interplay between the receiver’s self-esteem and gender and the social meaning of the emotion displayed by the sender.
Students in Grades 4–6 (
N
= 722) completed a Polish-language version of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C; Laurent et al.
Psychological Assessment, 11
, 326–338,
1999
). ...The psychometric properties of the Polish PANAS-C were examined using methods employed by other validation studies. Additionally, two alternative models suggested in the literature – a 10-item PANAS-C (Ebesutani et al.
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34
, 191–203,
2012
) and a second-order PANAS-C (Ebesutani et al.
Psychological Assessment, 23
, 679–691,
2011a
) – were tested. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the 10-item version performed better that the two remaining versions. The analyses for the original 2-factor model and the second-order model suggested that the underlying structure of the PANAS-C, similar to the structure of the original PANAS, may be more complex than initially assumed. The PA and NA scores were related to traditional self-report measures of child anxiety and depression demonstrating that the pattern of correlations was consistent with the tripartite model of affective disorders. Gender and age differences were also consistent with those reported in the literature. Together these results suggest that the Polish-language version adds to the expanding number of translations of the PANAS-C, indicating that the scale can be used with samples from culturally diverse backgrounds.
The aim of the study was to demonstrate canned pork as a functional meat product due to the presence of potentially anti-cancer factors, e.g., (a) bioactive peptides with potential activity against ...cancer cells; (b) lowering the content of sodium nitrite and with willow herb extract. In silico (for assessing the anticancer potential of peptides) and in vitro (antiproliferation activity on L-929 and CT-26 cell lines) analysis were performed, and the obtained results confirmed the bioactive potential against cancer of the prepared meat product. After 24 h of incubation with peptides obtained from meat product containing lyophilized herb extract at a concentration of 150 mg/kg, the viability of both tested cell lines was slightly decreased to about 80% and after 72 h to about 40%. On the other hand, after 72 h of incubation with the peptides obtained from the variant containing 1000 mg/kg of freeze-dried willow herb extract, the viability of intestinal cancer cells was decreased to about 40%, while, by comparison, the viability of normal cells was decreased to only about 70%.
The purpose of this article is to provide a modern perspective on the diagnosis of endometriosis with particular attention to the role of ultrasound examination. In the present study, we highlight ...the problem of endometriosis in teenage girls and discuss the patients’ perspective on the diagnostic process.
In order to present the most recent reports on the diagnosis of endometriosis, the PubMed database was searched. Articles published within the last 3 years (2019–2021) and those considered relevant during the bibliographic review were analyzed.
The role of ultrasound examination and assessment of patients' perspective related to delayed and incorrect diagnosis were considered to be the most important in the recent reports. Attention was also paid to the problem of endometriosis diagnosis in adolescent girls.
Appropriately constructed and used questionnaires help to determine the risk of endometriosis in a particular patient. The primary method for diagnosis is extended ultrasound examination, which should be performed especially in patients with a high risk of developing the disease. This procedure is applicable to both adult and adolescent women. Awareness of the possibility of developing the disease in a particular patient, combined with appropriate use of ultrasound examination, can contribute to the decrease in diagnostic delay.
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