Emotional Contagion: A Virus in the making

Date: 04-02-2022

Happiness and unhappiness our emotional response

Happiness and unhappiness is the result of both voluntary and involuntary influences, e.g. it may be due to news that someone you care about is having a baby, getting married, a new job, home or many other positive things that give happy emotions, making you feel happy for and/or with them.

However, if the the opposite were the case and someone you care about was experiencing sadness due to a miscarriage, marriage break up, losing their job, their home or similar, they are likely to feel very unhappy and other negative emotional feelings of sadness, hurt, anger etc., may get transferred to you too without you realising it.

Emotional Contagion?

When a persons emotional feelings and responses can be transferred to you. Rather like the spreading of a virus that physically passes on contact or being in close proximity the positive and negative emotions of others can equally pass to you.

How does it affect us?

If someone you live or work with is angry, sad, down or negative all or most of the time, those feelings can be transferred to you. Causing you to embed those thoughts and feelings into your own life. In turn, you can transmit these similar negative feelings to others.

How to deflect negative emotions

It’s important you know how to deflect someones negativity. Although there are a number of ways to do so. I recommend using the following steps of STOP!, which has worked very effectively both personally and with clients.