Emotional Contagion

If compassion is natural to the human brain and being, then can it also be encouraged to fuller development and use?  

This question was posed by Dr. Daniel Goleman as moderator of the day-long ‘Conference on Compassion Meditation: Mapping Current Research and Charting Future Directions’, sponsored by HH The Dalai Lama at Emory University in October 2010.

One of the presenters on the question, Dr. Franz De Naal from the Netherlands, talked about the synchronization that humans are very capable of--that we pick up on the emotions of those around us and even begin to share them in a form of ‘emotional contagion’.  We recognize ourselves, as well as recognizing the ’other’, in ways that allow us to see different perspectives.

Q: So, if we are capable of and subject to emotional contagion, what does that mean for our daily interactions and collaboration?

•   What are we passing on to others?  

• Are our emotions toxic or beneficial to our colleagues and families?  

•   What perspectives are we passing on, just by the way we feel in a given moment?

•  How do we need to be paying attention to our emotional states when we go into meetings, dialogue, or daily conversation?

We will be offering more about this conference in new posts.  Check back in with us.