Emotional Contagion

Emotional contagion is the process leading to the emotional state matching between two interacting subjects: the individual experiencing a particular emotional state and the observer. Emotional contagion is considered a basic building block of empathy and makes individuals able to share emotions. Empathy, in its most complex definition, is a phenomenon that implies the ability to perceive and interpret what another person is feeling and understand their needs. A in-depth description of meaning, mechanisms and functions of emotional contagion is provided in this contribution.