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REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Emotion Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1493512
Emotions spread like contagious diseases
Provisionally accepted- 1 Tianjin People's Hospital, Tianjin, China
- 2 Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
Emotional contagion, that is, the spontaneous synchronization of emotions among individuals, is the basic mechanism of social cohesion and survival of different species. Emotional contagion can be observed in humans and many animals, and it has become an effective means to protect individuals from danger. The study of emotional contagion in different animals is of evolutionary significance, and in human society, emotional contagion has an important impact on mental health and group behavior. However, the existing research still has obvious shortcomings in the similarities and differences of cross-species emotional contagion, the communication dynamics in virtual space and the infectious effect of positive emotions. This paper reviews the mechanisms of emotional contagion in different species, such as rodents, nonhuman primates, dogs, crows and zebrafish, highlighting evolutionary conservatism and species-specific adaptation, and analyzes the role of human children's behavioral mimicry in its early development. Furthermore, we extend the discussion of emotional contagion to virtual social networks, revealing the unique communication mechanism in online environment. In addition, by combing the sociological model and the emerging neurocognitive model, the complex process of emotional contagion can be explained more comprehensively. Through multidisciplinary perspective, it provides systematic theoretical and empirical support for us to understand emotional contagion.
Keywords: emotional contagion, human, Animals, behavior mimicry, online social network, Model
Received: 24 Sep 2024; Accepted: 21 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Zhang, Zhu, Xiao and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hongling Xiao, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
Hongwen Ma, Tianjin People's Hospital, Tianjin, 300000, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.