Sometimes emotional contagion occurs in a subtle way so it’s hard to recognize. One of these occasions could be if you have ever tried to one-up someone. It often happens with men, when one person tries to subtly show that they know more than the previous person, by giving an answer to a question, or an example of something, that seems to have more zip somehow than the previous answer. Maybe it is something where the person knows a more obscure answer to a question than the previous, or a sharper example of something than the previous person’s example. And it may be said with a slight braggadocio, as if to subtly say, without overtly bragging, that he one-upped the previous person, went one step higher in the quality of the answer. The person may be a little embarrassed about doing this, so they try and hold it back, or disguise it, but it is still apparent to the perceptive person.
When this happens there could be a slight movement of emotion or affect, or personal energy that comes forth from the person who is doing the one-upping. This affect or energy is so slight that it is usually not recognizable or identifiable consciously, but could be present nonetheless, at this imperceptible level. Of course, this is conjecture, since it cannot be established or proven as a fact, and, to my knowledge no research has been conducted to establish its presence empirically. But if this person were to continue doing so, the succession of one instance upon another instance would soon be noticeable, and the person would establish a reputation about doing so. This would be likely to occur even if each separate occasion were not noticeably marked by a gradually increasing braggadocio but was marked by the same increase in the degree of braggadocio, one atop the other so that as it grew it became noticeable. So the person would be continuing to be a little apologetic about it, and yet the emotion is likely to have an impact.
When emotion is expressed this way it can be contagious at an imperceptible level. Emotion doesn’t have to be noticed or recognized in order to be contagious. Just like a vaccine is not experienced as flowing through one’s body after they receive an injection, feelings can move through one’s body, or being. This likely explains how trends happen, or how an individual establishes their prowess and thereby develops a reputation, although people may not be able to identify exactly how it happens. But because, theoretically, emotion moves and touches people, and carries a very simple message, emotional contagion can be effective as a way of creating a personality or image of oneself in a public realm.
It does not necessarily have to be a movement of affect, as it may be that a cue is read from a person’s behavior by observers as meaning some type of smugness existing within the person who one-ups someone and makes a smug-like facial expression, as we know that facial expressions convey a lot of meaning also. But since we can feel energy emanating from people at times, it does raise the question as to whether this is contagious energy that is emanating as well as a perception based on a cue. Research could compare the effect of a photograph with a video with a real person, setting up three different stimuli, all of the same person, and measure the recipient’s ratings on psychometric scales or even physiological responses. It may have already been done but to my knowledge it has not been related to establishing emotional contagion. Some people may have an imperceptible feeling about them. This may be a form of subtle emotional contagion, where we feel the same or a similar feeling from that person without actually identifying it as such. It could be that some people just emanate a feel or a sense about them that has an imperceptible effect so that they are liked more (or despised more).
A problem can occur if someone reacts in a negative way to the perception that they have been one-upped. This is especially true if they are sensitive and have an issue with self-esteem. Since emotion does seem to have a trigger of its own, it may be that even a below-threshold, consciously imperceptible impact of emotion in such a person could trigger a negative reaction such as an argument, or a need to counter-act the one-upmanship, as many men with issues of competition about masculinity are prone to do. What is consciously imperceptible may be subconsciously perceptible. At the end of this argument is often a fight or even worse, especially if the initial person is not so reluctant to be smug about their ability to respond in a sharper, quicker manner.
In a sense social media could present the control group we are looking for, since people will react quickly to slights on social media also, where transfer of affect is not possible, unless the respondent’s internal affect drives an angry retort to an insult in writing. It makes sense that this would happen but this does not negate the possibility that affect could transfer in actual interpersonal situations.