I am inviting everyone to Stop the Spread of Negative Contagious Emotions. Almost every day we see the spread of these negative contagious emotions in the news. For example, this is new in the news this afternoon:
Chinese Fighter Jet Confronts US Navy Plane with CNN Crew Aboard as Tensions Simmer in South China Sea.
This will spread negative emotions even more. The media uses words like “confronts” “tensions simmer” and these words raise the emotional temperature, and then the media wonders why there are shootings every day in the U.S. It is because of emotional contagion. Negative contagious emotions from one story or event will transfer over to a different situation through the process of emotional contagion. We can stop this from happening by inoculating ourselves from absorbing negative contagious emotions. To do this, use reason instead. Ask yourself how accurate is this headline? Did a fighter jet actually “confront” a US Navy plane? That is a war-like movement as if the Chinese jet blocked a US plane while flying in the air. That would cause a war. Or is this a case of the media just using those strong words to attract an audience? Questioning headlines like this puts the mind in charge and blocks the emotional reaction.
Three days. 10 mass shootings. More than 50 victims. US sees worst weekend of 2023.
When emotions fly high like they are, it doesn’t take much to put them over the top. Emotions are easily triggered as they can transfer from one event to another. For example, USA Today says that there were 10 mass shootings from Feb. 17 through Feb. 19 – the most of any weekend so far this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. That’s considering all shootings from Friday to Sunday in which four or more people were shot, not including the shooter or shooters. It is possible that heightened emotions that some of these people absorb automatically will produce this horrible result, especially if the person already had angry emotions near the surface. They could easily be triggered off, even if the topic were different. A person so inclined may feel revengeful in a general way and let that emotion take over and precipitate a horrible action in an event, a shooting unrelated to the initial event, perhaps angry emotion triggered by a contentious political matter. That is how negative emotional contagion can be involved and why it needs to be stopped.
We need to Stop the Spread of Negative Contagious Emotions. I am convinced that as emotions flow unimpeded through society that they get stronger and come closer to the surface. It doesn’t take much for them to overflow and trigger off impulsive reactions. Anger and fear especially can produce these impulsive reactions. Recent research [1] shows that stopping an impulsive, emotional reaction, on purpose, and instead thinking deliberately, judging the accuracy of headlines, and retrieving accurate information on purpose will all lower the influence of misinformation.
Emotions are known to be a major factor in spreading misinformation. Stop the Spread of Negative Contagious Emotions.
- Martel, C., Pennycook, G. & Rand, D.G. Reliance on emotion promotes belief in fake news. Cogn. Research 5, 47 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-020-00252-3