Why do you laugh at others with laughter?

Friends who are in love, you are drunk with him. Although it is not you who fall in love, the experience of your sadness and loss is real. Whenever the sad music sounds, the heroine in the TV series is separated from the male lead. You may There will also be tears involuntarily; a person feels boring at home watching the talk show, but when he watches the scene, he laughs back and back with other audiences.

Picture source: giphy

Why do I laugh together when I hear others laugh? Why do I feel sad when I hear others cry? Today we will talk to you about the phenomenon of psychological psychology.

Image source: veer gallery

1. What is emotional infection?

When people subconsciously imitate their companion expressions, by feeling the emotional response every minute and every second, they can feel that they also have a similar emotional experience in the mood of their companions. This process is also called "emotional infection" (emotional infection "( Emotional contagion).

This experience is inspired by others and will eventually cause emotions to be consistent with the initial inspiration. This is the so -called "I will be happy to see others laugh, and I will be sad when I see others crying."

Second, why is emotional contagious?

Related researchers have found that humans tend to imitate the facial expressions, language expression, actions, and behavior of the people around them, and this imitation is often unconscious. In the process of imitation, our own emotional experience will be affected by our facial expressions and other non -verbal communication clues.

People will imitate the expressions of the people around (picture source: Veer gallery)

For example, when we see the pleasant expression of others, the muscles in our cheeks will show richer muscle activity; when we see the anger expression of others, our eyebrow muscles will show richer Muscle activity.

And our body's feedback on these facial expressions, sounds, postures, and movements will allow us to have the corresponding emotional experience, such as happiness and anger. The specific mechanism can be expressed as "emotional awareness -unconscious imitation -physiological feedback -emotional experience".

Third, who is more likely to be infected by emotions?

The strength of emotional infection has differences in different people, and is mainly affected by personal characteristics and situation factors. The following lists are listed:

In terms of personal characteristics, friends who are easily attracted by others are more likely to be infected by others. These friends are regarded as ideal customers and users -they will talk to the street salesperson, and in the end they find that they have hugged a bunch of things that can't be used home (is you Hiahiahia);

Image source: veer gallery

People with strong independence and strong emotional stability are even more difficult to be infected by others. These friends pay more attention to themselves, and pay less attention to others. The emotional changes are small and the intensity of emotions is weak. Those who are easily affected by others are more susceptible to emotions.

Compared with men, women are more likely to have emotional infections. This mainly comes from the differences between gender characters. Most women are more sensitive to the emotions showing others, and they are good at expressing and responding to emotions. Men's thinking is more logical and rational response to the external environmental needs.

In terms of situation factors, the more intimate people are infected by it. We have a stronger infection about the emotions of close people and people who like people. For example, an experimental study found that in the simulated video leased borrowing shop, those waiters who issued "sincerity" smiling can make their customers infect positive emotions. In our daily life, the emotions of parents or partners are far stronger than our colleagues or classmates.

People with low status are more likely to be infected by people with high status. For example, in the interaction between leaders and subordinates, the emotions of leaders are more likely to be infected to subordinates, rather than the opposite direction.

Third, some applications of emotional infection

Live: The emotional strength we experience is related to the emotional strength displayed by the people who induced emotions. The stronger the emotions of people, the stronger we imitate, and the stronger the corresponding infection. The live broadcast anchor is justified by increasing the intensity of emotional expression, making it easier for users to experience the sense of "surging heart", and it is more likely to buy, buy, buy, buy and buy, but be alert Emotional trap, rational consumption, happy shopping ~

Live under the light (picture source: veer gallery)

Passion Speech: Researchers' research on the research of the entrepreneurial contest shows that the entrepreneurs who introduced the entrepreneurial project in the entrepreneurial contest had a positive relationship between their final investment amount. In other words, the more passionate entrepreneurs in the speech make investors and judges feel passion, and these judges are more likely to "pass the passion" for their entrepreneurial projects.

Image source: veer gallery

Playground: I believe that no children don't like the playground, because people who come to this will involuntarily forget their troubles and feel happiness. The playground is to create a pleasant emotional atmosphere and convey happy and happy emotions, so that they bring positive emotions to tourists and realize happy transmission ~

Forgetful amusement parks (picture source: VEER gallery)

Collective ritual: collective rituals to promote emotional infections between members inside the group through synchronous actions, sharing attention and sharing significance. They can enhance the connectivity and unity perceived by the participants, promote the emotions and attention of the participants, and understand the world from the perspective of "us". This impact will enhance emotional imitation between members and promote emotional infection. Broadcast gymnastics (picture source: veer gallery)

These collective rituals have the basic characteristics of duplicated fixed behavior and psychological significance. The related tools of these rituals are often the same steps as preparation activities. Each step has a certain meaning. Even a subtle step error may lead to the failure of the ritual. It is also these "cautiousness" of details to enhance the "sense of ritual" of participating people, and promote the emergence of everyone's sharing.

4. How to improve our own emotional appeal?

Researchers have found that friends who have a strong personal charm and are funny and humorous are more good at passing positive emotions to others through limbs and other forms; these friends who are good at passing positive emotions can communicate with people around them in a short time, which is us. Often said "self -familiarity".

In daily life, we can practice more words and non -verbal expression methods, add more exercises, and collect more emotional feedback on these expressions in the expressions, enhance our emotional expression ability, so as to help ourselves in subsequent interpersonal communication to help ourselves One arms!

Produced: Popular Science China

Author: Qi Shuting (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Producer: China Science Popularization Expo

references:

Chen, X.-P., Yao, X., & Kotha, S. (2009). Entrepreneur passion and preparedness in business plan presentations: A persuasion analysis of venture capitalists funding decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 52(1), 199-214.

Falkenberg, I., Bartels, M., & Wild, B. (2008). Keep smiling! Facial reactions to emotional stimuli and their relationship to emotional contagion in patients with schizophrenia. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 258(4) , 245–253.

Hatfield, E., CACIOPPO, J. L., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychology sciences, 2, 96–99.

Li, J. J., Chen, X.-P., Kotha, S., & Fisher, G. (2017). Catching fire and spreading it: A glimpse Into displayed entrepreneurial passion in crowdfunding campaigns. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(7 ), 1075-1090.

Liu Chunxiao, Liu Lizhi, Wang Dan, & Chen Wenfeng. (2022). The mechanism of collective ritual to promote the emotional infection of the group. Psychological progress, 30 (8), 1870–1882.

Zhang Qiyong, & Lu Jiayu. (2013). The concept and mechanism of emotional infection. Psychological progress, 21 (9), 1596–1604.

Zhang Qiyong, Lu Jiayu, Yan Zhiying, & Chen Chenghui. (2016). The mechanism of emotional infection. Journal of Psychology, 48 (11), 1423-1433.

Wang Xiao, Li Wenzhong, & Du Jianang. (2010). Research on theoretical research of emotional infection. Psychological progress, 18 (8), 1236–1245.

The China Science Popularization Expo is the Science Popular Science Platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is sponsored by the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Relying on the high -end scientific resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is committed to spreading cutting -edge scientific knowledge and providing fun science and education services.

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