Emotional contagion in the workplace happens when the mood of just one person affects the mood and behavior of the rest of the team.
We have all experienced how the stress or enthusiasm of a colleague can affect the rest of us, for good or bad. This powerful dynamic can shape the work environment, either boosting morale or spreading negativity.
This is why managing emotional contagion in the workplace is extremely important. So, let’s find out more about what emotional contagion is, how it can impact the workplace, and how to harness its power to foster positivity at work and improve engagement.
What Is Emotional Contagion Theory?
First proposed by Dr Elaine Hatfield in 1993, Hatfield used the term ‘Emotional Contagion’ to describe the idea that people tend to mimic other people’s nonverbal communication signals (including postures, facial expressions, vocal expressions, and behaviors) that they perceive and then tend to feel the same emotions.
Hatfield referred to this process as emotional contagion and she posited that people tend to “catch” other people’s emotions in three steps:
- Mimicry – People tend to mimic or imitate other people’s nonverbal behavior, such as facial expressions. Quite often, the way we mimic these nonverbal signals is very subtle (done in an almost imperceptible way) and this can happen very quickly and unconsciously.
- Feedback – Any nonverbal signal (i.e., posture, behavior, and facial or vocal expression) we make tends to affect the way we feel because the body affects our emotions. So, for example, if you smile you will tend to feel happy even if you were not happy to start with.
- Contagion – As a result of feedback, when we mimic someone’s nonverbal signal that reflects an emotion, we tend to feel that emotion ourselves and that’s how emotional contagion happens.
Other later studies on emotional contagion show that social connections and the strengths of such connections tend to influence how strong this contagion is.
For instance, if people have a deep connection with each other or they feel that they belong to the same social networks or are part of the same group, they tend to be influenced more strongly by the nonverbal signals given by the other people in the group.
Also, when people are emotionally aligned, they are more likely to feel affiliation and loyalty towards a group, and emotional contagion is strongly connected with empathy.
So, emotional contagion is much more powerful than initially thought and can spread in groups, especially in those groups that constitute a strong social entity.
As such, emotional contagion in the workplace can be extremely powerful, and employees and managers all need to understand it, as it can profoundly affect not only individual employees but also a whole workplace culture.
How Emotional Contagion Operates in the Workplace
There are many ways in which emotional contagion can operate in the workplace and some can include:
- Teamwork and collaboration – people working in a group pervaded by a positive and enthusiastic mood can work better together, and collaboration in these teams improves.
- Employee well-being and engagement – Employees who work in a positively charged group tend to be happier, more engaged, and experience less stress.
- Leadership – Engaging leaders tend to be better at transmitting their emotions to employees and, if they can transmit positive emotions, this will have a positive impact on employee engagement and motivation.
- Decision-making: Some studies have shown how emotional contagion can influence decision-making and risk perceptions.
- Negotiations and conflict management: The types of emotions you transmit affect the results of negotiation and conflict management, as well as how good you are at dealing with difficult people.
- Customers’ satisfaction: Employees’ moods have been shown to greatly affect customers’ reactions and attitudes.
Examples of Emotional Contagion at Work
To give you a clearer idea of how the emotional contagion theory effect can impact the workplace, I have provided some examples below.
Stress Spreading in a Meeting
When a manager enters a meeting stressed and anxious, the other employees can quickly start feeling the same way, before the manager has even said a word.
Enthusiastic Leader
A leader who faces challenges with optimism and enthusiasm can make the rest of the team immediately feel more positive and confident.
Burnout in a Department
If some employees feel stressed to the point of burnout in a department, this feeling can easily spread as other employees pick up on the sentiments of exhaustion and frustration.
Excitement Following a Success
If a project goes successfully and employees feel happy and excited, everybody around them is likely to feel that way too.
Negativity from a Difficult Client
Meeting difficult people at work, particularly a client with a negative attitude, can make an employee feel angry and frustrated. This employee can then transmit the same feeling to other people at work.
A Calm Leader Who Defuses Conflict
If there is conflict between people in a team, a leader who keeps calm and composed can quickly make everybody else feel calmer too, thus defusing a potentially critical situation.
6 Strategies to Use Emotional Contagion for Positive Culture Change
Now let’s look at some strategies for dealing with emotional contagion at work.
1. Show Positive Emotions as a Leader
As a leader, you need to lead by example, as every emotion you show is likely to have a ripple effect on the rest of the team.
To show positive emotions, you can do simple things such as smiling, acknowledging hard work, and maintaining calm in stressful situations. These apparently trivial actions can instead have a big impact on the team.
However, try to be authentic and don’t fake it as other people will notice it. Give your team genuine smiles and, if there is any problem, focus on the solutions.
2. Encourage Open Communication
You want employees to feel safe to express their ideas and concerns without fear of repercussions. In this sense, making sure that there is psychological safety at work is a requisite.
Allowing employees to communicate and give and receive feedback is also vital. So, for example, you can have an open door policy if you are a manager, have a system for employees to give anonymous feedback, and use other communication channels such as:
- team meetings
- one-to-one reviews
- and employ technology to help you (for example, by using tools such as collaboration apps and videoconferencing as needed).
3. Celebrate Achievements
There are many ways to celebrate achievements and lift the morale of your employees.
You can start by giving relevant and immediate positive feedback and saying thank you more often. These are simple but effective ways to celebrate achievements.
In addition, you can set up employee reward programs and awards targeted both at individuals and teams.
4. Promote Team-Building and Social Activities
Helping employees socialize will strengthen their social bond and sense of comradeship, which is key for effective collaboration.
You can organize activities such as coffee breaks together, team days out, problem-solving challenges, or creative workshops.
5. Support Employee Well-Being
If employees are content and in good health there is a higher chance that they may contribute to creating a positive atmosphere for the whole workplace.
Some ideas include encouraging good work-life balance (for instance, by giving employees the possibility to work flexibly), organizing health challenges, offering mental health support, and offering other perks such as subsidized gym memberships.
6. Address Negative Emotional Contagion
Always be aware and keep an eye out for any negativity brewing at work. If you identify negativity, before negative emotions spread, identify the causes.
The causes of negativity might include high workload, change that is not managed well, or conflict.
To identify the causes make sure that communication is transparent and open.
When emotional contagion in the workplace involves negative feelings and you let it spread, it can be hard to reverse.
Nonverbal Communication in the Workplace
If you are a corporate trainer, workshop facilitator, or HR in charge of learning and development, emotional contagion in the workplace is a topic you might want to teach as part of a program on nonverbal communication and body language in the workplace.
These fully editable training course materials about nonverbal communication at work, which include PowerPoint slides and teacher notes, might be helpful for you to teach nonverbal communication to managers and employees.
>> Non-Verbal Communication Teaching Materials
References
Elfenbein, H. A. (2014). The many faces of emotional contagion: An affective process theory of affective linkage. Organizational Psychology Review, 4(4), 326-362. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386614542889
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional Contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 96–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep1077095
Sigal G. Barsade, Constantinos G.V. Coutifaris, Julianna Pillemer (2018). Emotional contagion in organizational life. Research in Organizational Behavior, 38, 137-151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2018.11.005
Wang D, Liu C and Chen W (2024) The role of self-representation in emotional contagion. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 18:1361368. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1361368
