#79 I Feel You

“𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘦!”

If you have been feeling shocked, scared, or angry lately, you are not alone.

As described by Psychologist Amit Goldberg in this enlightening podcast, while most of us don’t think about emotions as collective experiences, they are, in fact, shared. Emotional contagion is the human tendency to adopt the emotions of our social surroundings.  We quickly pick up on how our friends, family, colleagues, and leaders are feeling, and (unconsciously) use their emotions as guideposts for how we, too, should respond.

Unfortunately, emotional contagion is quicker and stronger for negative emotions because our brains are wired to pay more attention to threats.  

But there is good news:  as Goldberg explains, “One of the unique things about collective emotions is that feeling negative emotions together . . . feels good. And that's a strong reason for why people join together to demonstrate and to generate collective action.”