The key to keeping your employees happy wharton magazine. The impact of emotional contagion and its relationship to. Whartons sigal barsade explains how to stop emotional contagion, which often spreads during major events such as the coronavirus outbreak. Emotional contagion in organizational life sciencedirect. Drawing from theory and research on primitive emotional contagion. Our research focuses specifically on emotional contagion from a leadership perspective. Sigal barsade is a professor of management at the wharton school of business and focusses her research on emotional intelligence, organizational culture, unconscious bias, teamwork, leadership, and organizational change. Emotional contagion studies in emotion and social interaction 9780521449489. This book describes many situations involving emotional contagion, and goes into detail. Research has long shown that emotions are contagious.
Part of the lecture notes in computer science book series lncs, volume 7502. Emotional contagion matters nano tools for leaders. Sigal barsade, a researcher at the wharton school of the university of pennsylvania, specializes in studying emotional contagion and its impact in organizations. Dyadic survey data from 285 service interactions between employees and customers show that employees emotional labor strategies of deep and surface acting differentially influence customers service. Although there is a clear psychological theory of emotional contagion explaining how the emotional contagion process operates i. Continuous mile when implemented continuously, minor. Emotional contagion emotional contagion is the tendency to catch and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others. This expectation draws on extensive literature exploring the role of group emotions and emotional contagion in decision. Group emotional contagion, the transfer of moods among people in a group, and its influence on work group dynamics was examined. Barsade 1994 alsofoundthatpeoplehigher in the trait of selfmonitoring were more greatly in. Emotional contagion in organizational life wharton faculty platform. Feb 15, 2011 theres some really interesting work in sociology about emotional entrainment 1, and in social psychology about emotional contagion 2.
But it goes even deeper than a transfer of emotions. So, for example, emotional contagion is the tendency to express and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others. Primitive emotional contagion scholars from a variety of disciplinesneuroscience, biology, social psychology, sociology, and lifespan psychologyhave proposed that primitive emotional contagion is of critical importance in understanding human cognition, emotion, and behavior. The influence of emotional and cognitive transparency on negotiations and real estate sales. Barsade and oneill have found that emotional culture influences employee satisfaction, burnout, teamwork, and even hard measures such as financial performance and absenteeism. Sigal barsade is the academic director of, and teaches emotional intelligence in, whartons highpotential leaders. The key to keeping your employees happy penn today. For example, in the study described above, totterdell 2000 found that older players were more prone to. Emotional contagion can also ignite anxiety and even have an adverse impact on group effectiveness.
So one thing you can do is to avoid even looking at them. Mood and emotions in small groups and work teams sciencedirect. Emotional contagion in the electronic communication context. Emotional contagion is the tendency for two individuals to emotionally converge. Emotional contagion is the phenomenon of having one persons emotions and related behaviors directly trigger similar emotions and behaviors in other people. By the 1700s, researchers began to discover that people mirror the smiles and frowns they see on someone elses face. A longitudinal study of the culture of companionate.
Emotions can be shared across individuals in many different ways both implicitly or explicitly. Article reprints books cases collections magazine issues. The good news is that you can be inoculated, to a certain degree, against emotional contagion, barsade said. James fowler 2008 wrote about the spread of happiness over twenty years in one community. Mar 17, 2016 sigal barsade, a researcher at the wharton school of the university of pennsylvania, specializes in studying emotional contagion and its impact in organizations.
First, the transfer of ideas is qualitatively different from the transfer of feelings. There was a study done by sigal barsade 2002 on the ripple effect. Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior sigal g. The influence of creating experiences or selling objects on employee happiness. For better results, emotional contagion matters contributors. Emotional contagion definition emotional contagion is the phenomenon that individuals tend to express and feel emotions that are similar to those of others. Wharton professor of management sigal barsade talks about the impact of emotional contagion stemming from the coronavirus, why it has the potential to greatly amplify the damage caused by covid19, and how negative emotions particularly fear and anxiety can harm our decision making processes.
Sigal barsade, a professor of management at the wharton school of business, has searched for the core of this bad apple syndrome. In many of those books, i came across references to emotional contagion by elaine hatfield, john t. A study of emotional contagion with virtual characters springerlink. The focus of professor barsade s research expertise, speaking and consulting practice is emotional intelligence, organizational culture, unconscious bias, teamwork, leadership and organizational change. Sigal barsade, phd, joseph frank bernstein professor of management, the wharton school, university of pennsylvania. Simply defined, emotional contagion is the transfer of moods and feelings from one person. Cited by thompson reuters essential science indicators as one of the most cited papers in the research area of mood contagion and chosen. Understanding how emotional contagion works increases your awareness of the negative version of it and is a form of prevention in its own right, as research on the benefits of recognizing.
Emotional contagion an overview sciencedirect topics. If the leader was upbeat, members became energized and performance shot up. Understanding how emotions spread between individuals can help you. Wharton management professor sigal barsade believes the widespread panic as a result of the coronavirus is a form of emotional contagion.
Research by sigal barsade has demonstrated that when emotional contagion takes place, the judgment and quality of group decisions are also impacted. This is distinct from the psychological concept of emotional contagion, which describes emotional convergence that occurs as a function of mimicry and behavioral synchronization hatfield. A definition of contagion was suggested by sigal g. Emotional contagion and its influence on group behaviori sigal g. How feelings and friendship factor into startup success and failure a new study from wharton and city university of london looks at the roles that feelings and friendships play in entrepreneurial ventures, especially when the prospects for success dim. Sigal barsade, administrative science quarterly, vol. Her research on emotional contagion in groups shows that just. The biggest feedback i get when i speak to employees about emotional contagion is that this explains so much about whats going on at work between people and among groups, says barsade. She outlined three steps to help prevent the spread of unchecked emotions. Create an environment that enhances employee engagement and performance by paying attention to the emotional contagion occurring in your team. The studies tested hypotheses on differential contagion effects due to the degree of pleasantness of the emotion. The authors propose a simple mechanism to account for the process of contagion. Rapson as a groundbreaking work fundamental to understanding the mysterious inner workings of the brain and how that translates into behaviors and actions. It happens all the time on a microlevel and is usually harmless, like a baby smiling back at.
To the best of our knowledge, no study has yet directly examined emotional contagion from. For instance, conscious reasoning, analysis and imagination have all been found to contribute to the phenomenon. Professor barsade told wharton magazine that, the biggest feedback i get when i speak to employees about emotional contagion is that this explains so much about whats going on at work. Emotional contagion is the tendency to express and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others.
Primitive emotional contagion is a basic building block of. Emotional contagion is the phenomenon that individuals tend to express and feel emotions that are similar to those of others. Be aware an understanding that emotional contagion exists is the first step in managing it. Both the young people and the staff were successfully trained in understanding how emotions are passed along and how to avoid spreading further aggression. In social psychology, emotional contagion describes the widely observed. The affective revolution in organizational behavior.
Emotional contagion project gutenberg selfpublishing. Rapson as a groundbreaking work fundamental to understanding the mysterious inner workings of the brain and how that translates into. Wharton management professor sigal barsade believes the widespread panic is a form of emotional contagion. Emotional contagion and its relevance to individual. Sep 01, 1993 in many of those books, i came across references to emotional contagion by elaine hatfield, john t. Mar 26, 2020 understanding how emotional contagion works increases your awareness of the negative version of it and is a form of prevention in its own right, as research on the benefits of recognizing. World heritage encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and the most definitive collection ever assembled. But considering this, how does emotional contagion play out in groups. Unhappy people spread their emotions to their coworkers. Emotional contagion in the electronic communication. After determining that emotional contagion existed in groups, i then examined the.
Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior that shows that our emotions can be contagious and shared with others, even if we do not mean to. Although emotional contagion can contain elements of purposeful processing found in cognitive contagionsuch as the evaluation, interpretation, expectation, and personal goals found in the sharing of ideas salancik and pfeifer, 1978emotional contagion research studies show that emotional contagion most often occurs at a significantly less conscious level, based on automatic processes and. Examines how emotional contagion flows through work teams of accountants and nurses. Found that emotional contagion exists at the work group level, and showed the influence of four different types of emotions on group processes including cooperation, conflict, and negotiation. Pdf mood and emotions in small groups and work teams. Basically, what my research has shown is that emotional contagion relies a lot on attention, she said. This phenomenon, known as emotional contagion, has been recognized in the psychological literature as a type of interpersonal influence schachter, 1959. A process in which a person or group influences the emotions or behavior of another person or group through the conscious or unconscious induction of emotion states and behavioral attitudes. The science of emotional contagion goes back to 400 b. While literature on shared cognitions can provide some insight into how collective emotions occur via emotional contagion, there are some important differences between emotional and cognitive contagion. We then explore the key role of emotional contagion in organizational life across a wide range of domains, including 1 team processes and outcomes, 2 leadership, 3 employee work attitudes.
She found that if a team leader was in a negative mood, team members caught that mood and their performances tanked. In addition to individual differences regarding trust and emotional contagion, there is a second category of personality styles and personality disorders relating to emotional autonomy. After determining that emotional contagion existed in groups, i then examined the influence of emotional contagion on individuallevel attitudes and group processes. When someone tells you with a big smile that she passed an important test, you smile as well. Barsade a process in which a person or group influences the emotions or behavior of another person or group through the conscious or unconscious induction of emotion states and behavioral attitudes.
Barsade school of management yale university box 208200 new haven, ct 065208200. In this research, we extend emotional labor theories to the customer domain by developing and testing a theoretical model of the effects of employee emotional labor on customer outcomes. Emotional contagion, the transfer of emotion between individuals, and its influence on work group dynamics was examined in two managerial simulations using multiple, convergent measures of emotions and group dynamics. There was a significant influence of emotional contagion on individuallevel attitudes and group processes. Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Emotional contagion this study focuses on emotional contagion, a process in which a person or group influences the emotions, or behavior of another person or group through the conscious or unconscious induction of emotion states and behavioral attitudes schoenewolf, 1990. There was a study done by sigal barsade2002 on the ripple effect. This cited by count includes citations to the following articles in scholar. Barsade recently heard from a professional working with youth correctional facilities who used emotional contagion research to help create a new program that treats and deescalates aggression. Barsade has been engaged as a speaker or consultant to numerous large corporations across myriad industries such as cisco. The emotional contagion literature shows how mood and affect can spread in groups.
Sigal barsade, phd, joseph frank bernstein professor of. We discuss explicit and implicit processes through which this affective combination occurs by examining the research on emotional contagion, entrainment, modeling, and the manipulation of affect. Behavioral and neurobiological responses to lonely employees. Levy and nail, 1993 theres such a thing as cognitive contagion toocatching other peoples ideasbut there are differences. First on her list is to be aware of your own mood and to change it if it isn.
Nov 15, 2011 emotional contagion emotional contagion is the tendency to catch and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others. Barsade the wharton school university of pennsylvania. Wharton business school professor sigal barsade has some surprising news. Last, emotional contagion is a type of social influence barsade.
Dyadic survey data from 285 service interactions between employees and customers show that employees emotional labor strategies of deep and surface acting differentially influence. Jul 30, 2001 the studies tested hypotheses on differential contagion effects due to the degree of pleasantness of the emotion, and the energy with which this pleasantness was conveyed. As predicted, the positive emotional contagion group members experienced improved cooperation, decreased conflict, and increased perceived task performance. Emotional contagion from followers to leaders, and its effect. Group emotional contagion, the transfer of moods among people in a group, and its influence on work group dynamics was examined in a laboratory study of managerial decision making using multiple, convergent measures of mood, individual attitudes, behavior, and grouplevel dynamics. Address correspondence and reprint requests to sigal g. Administrative science quarterly 47 4, 644675, 2002. Emotions are contagious, so start acting much more positively. This contagion from leader to team was identified by sigal barsade in a series of studies when she was at the yale school of management. Emotional contagion can also be prevalent and important to be aware of in the workplace.
Sigal barsade s experiments at yale university provide amazing insight into the role of emotional contagion in groups, especially when its the leaders emotions, and the impact that the groups mood has on performance. Simply defined, emotional contagion is the transfer of moods and feelings from one person to another. If, on the other hand, your friend tells you his father passed away last. Nov 30, 2017 in this research, we extend emotional labor theories to the customer domain by developing and testing a theoretical model of the effects of employee emotional labor on customer outcomes. Using a 2 times 2 experimental design, with a trained confederate enacting mood conditions, the. Stemming negative emotional contagion and making positive. She suggests ways leaders can manage their emotions and create a positive emotional culture in their teams.