Catching Emotional Contagion

It is well known that emotions can spread to other people of the group (called emotional contagion), but what is the role of emotional recognition in this process? There is certainly a long history of research and casual observations as to how other people’s emotions can impact our own, but the exact causal mechanism is…

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How can smiling boost one’s mood?

In the video below, Dr. Matsumoto chose to address a question submitted to us for National Smile Month: How can smiling boost one’s mood? This is actually true, and smiling helps boost our mood by interfacing with central physical and emotional processes in our brain. Dr. Matsumoto describes these emotional processes as sort of a…

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