Contagion effect

The contagion effect, in psychology

A word dating back to 14th Century English, contagion is derived from the Latin word contagio, from contingere, meaning to have contact with or pollute. Often carrying with it connotations of disease or corrupting influences, contagion also refers to the rapid communication and spread of influence of ideas, doctrines, or emotional states.^[1] Emotional contagion has been described as a "multiply determined family of social, psychophysiological, and behavioral phenomena" that is relatively automatic and unintentional. It has been defined at the "tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally".^[2] As a result, understanding this innate result of human interaction is thought by some to be critically important in understanding cognition, emotion, and behavior.^[3]

History

Descartes once said, "it is impossible for the soul to feel a passion without that passion being truly as one feels it."^[4] However, it is possible for the emotions or "passions" one feels to be influenced or felt as a result of those around the individual.

In psychology and across history, early great thinkers have questioned ontological reasons and causes for our emotions. Plato saw the soul at tripartite consisting of the rational, appetitive, and courageous (emotional/spiritual) parts. Aristotle placed a high value of importance on emotions in the way humans conduct themselves morally. The work of these early philosophers laid the foundation for intellectual successors and schools of thought that have led to psychology as it is known today. Neoplatonism, Stoicism, the Renaissance, empiricism, rationalism, etc., all came into being both as a reaction to existing schools of thought, as well as because of the contagion effect and the influence of their ideas among intellectuals at the respective times. In the early diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, the contagion effect was widely evident. Exorcisms and faith healers were common in the Middle Ages, a time dominated by beliefs that demonic possession or witchcraft was the cause of mental illnesses. Moving away from that notion, Franz Anton Mesmer looked for objective, psychological explanations for mental illness. Widely discredited for being unscientific, Mesmer advocated use of magnets to redistribute the magnetic forces within the body and cure the physical symptoms it was causing. He gained a tremendous following and would treat patients in groups. The contagion effect resulting from these ritualistic treatments is responsible for claims of patients having relieved or cured symptoms.^[5]

References

1. ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contagion
2. ^ http://www.elainehatfield.com/ch87.pdf
3. ^ http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/93003921.pdf
4. ^ Descartes, Rene. 1984 [1649]. The Passions of the Soul In The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. 1, translated by John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch, 325-404. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
5. ^ Hergenhaun, B.R. (2009). An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.