Emotional Contagion: How Your Mood Shapes the Atmosphere Around You

Imagine you had a really stressful day at work. You pull into your driveway, and you’re fumbling around to find the keys to your house. Your stomach is growling with hunger, and you’re feeling drained and exhausted. You step into your house and hear, “Surprise!” and within seconds you’re surrounded by some of your closest family and friends, a table filled with food, birthday decorations all around, and the laughter and smiles of the people you love. I have a suspicion that would change your mood pretty quickly. Within moments, you’ll find yourself matching the mood of what’s going on around you, whether or not you’re aware that it’s happening. You’ll be laughing with your friends as they talk about how surprised you looked, smiling as you greet each person there, and filled with happiness and joy no matter what happened at work leading up to that moment. 

This phenomenon is called emotional contagion, and it’s been researched more than ever in the last 20 years. The most significant thing about it is that so much of the emotional contagion is unconscious, meaning it happens without our awareness. You’re more likely to smile when you walk into a room full of happy people at a surprise party, just as much as you’re likely to frown and feel somber when you’re walking into a funeral. Research shows that you will begin to mirror the emotions around you. The important thing about emotional contagion is that it can happen with both positive and negative moods. Science often refers to the concept of mirror neurons, discovered by psychologist Elaine Hatfield, to describe this phenomenon taking place in our body where certain neurons fire inside of our brain that mimic the neurons being fired in the brain of the person in front of us. For example, research shows that people are more likely to imitate or mirror the body language of the person in front of them.* This explains why you’re more likely to yawn when you see someone yawning in front of you. Not only that, but you will likely find yourself smiling when someone else smiles at you, because your body is compelled to mirror the mood in front of you whether you intend to do so or not.** 

In workplace settings, a fascinating study showed that the emotional contagion of the feeling and mood of anger had a very high effect on the workers and led to more cognitive failures and errors throughout the entire team.*** Your mood is contagious and being aware of this concept is important for two reasons: 1) It brings your attention to how influential you are in setting the mood of the atmosphere around you, and 2) It reminds you that you are susceptible to the mood and emotions of others, so that you’re less vulnerable to shifting into a negative space. Because we are both influential and susceptible, we need to make it a high priority to take ownership of our own mood. 

In counseling, we call this self-regulating. In order to be able to shift the mood in others, you first have to learn how to set the mood in yourself. Being in tune and aware of how you feel, and responding to those emotions in healthy ways is foundational to your ability to set the mood and have influence in your day-to-day interactions. Your ability to be aware of your own emotions makes or breaks your ability to influence the environment around you. In working with thousands of people, I know that most people aren’t actually in tune to their feelings throughout the day. They lack insight and awareness, or don’t take the time to stop and look inward. You can be carrying an edge of frustration, anger, irritation, apathy, annoyance, inadequacy, insecurity, hurt, overwhelm, or stress (just to name a few) to your mood without even realizing it. It begins to impact the people around you. And if you’re lacking in awareness, sometimes they can feel it even before you can. Influence always starts with awareness. 

So let me ask you this: What is the atmosphere you have set today? If people were consistently mirroring your mood, how would that change the atmosphere around you for the good or for the not so good? When you walk into a room, how does your mood shift the environment? Are you aware of your own feelings and willing to take ownership of your influence? Your mood is contagious, so be careful with it. 

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Works Cited 

*Caroline Catmure, Vincent Walsh, and Cecilia Heyes, “Associative Sequence Learning: The Role of Experience in the Development of Imitation and the Mirror System,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, August 27, 2009, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0048.
**Ke Ma, et al., “Mood Migration: How Enfacing a Smile Makes You Happier,” Cognition 151 (2016): 52-62, doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.02.018.
***Laura Petitta, et al., “Cognitive Failures in Response to Emotional Contagion: Their Effects on Workplace Accidents,” Accident Analysis & Prevention 125 (2019): 165-173, doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2019.01.018.