The Organizational Culture Development class has been moved to ZOOM. You can register HERE.
I will be sharing about a 2018 study from Tilburg University in the Netherlands that found viewers readily catch the emotions of popular YouTube vloggers. When viewers see a positive post, they react with heightened positive emotions, and the same pattern holds true for negative posts. Online mirrors: Video bloggers and viewers share emotions, December 27, 2018
Though they were later criticized for their invasive methods, a team led by Adam Kramer, a Facebook data scientist, tested emotional contagion by manipulating the newsfeeds of more than 680,000 users of the platform. Some were given more positive posts and fewer negative ones, and others were given the opposite social media diet. After analyzing more than 3 million posts, the team found that people exposed to fewer positive words made fewer positive posts themselves, whereas those exposed to fewer negative words made fewer negative posts. You feel your feed. (Adam D. I. Kramer, 111 (24) 8788-8790;)
Social psychologist Ron Friedman at the University of Rochester has found that just putting people in the same room as a “highly motivated individual” improves their motivation and performance. Conversely, when participants were paired with a less motivated person, they experienced a drop in their own motivation and performance.
He notes,
“Participants performed worse when they were seated next to an unmotivated office mate, even when they avoided verbal communication and worked on totally different tasks.”
The effect was detected after just five minutes of exposure. (all F. e., March 2009)
Research shows we affect one another positively or negatively. It is true to be cautious of the company we keep, including online. Emotion is contagious. Spread the positive kind! Also, choose co-workers to hang around who have an uplifting attitude. Have you ever heard the term; ‘if you don’t want fleas, don’t hang out with dogs?’ Better yet, what about becoming the positive influence for others to emulate?
Emotional contagion in organizational life, Sigal G. Barsade, G.V. Coutifaris, Julianna Pillemer
➡️If you missed this class, you can take the Strategic Leadership course on Learn Formula.