Emotions transfer between people automatically through expression, posture, and voice.
Hatfield and Cacioppo's finding that people unconsciously mimic expression and posture within milliseconds, then feel what they have mimicked. It is why a meeting's mood is set before anyone has spoken to the point.
In practice
- A manager who arrives visibly tense produces a tense stand-up before saying anything about the deadline.
- One anxious passenger on a delayed flight changes the temperature of an entire carriage within ten minutes.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind