How would stigma become stigma if it weren’t for emotional and social contagion passing it around from person to person or group to group so that it develops that label? Stigma carries with it some emotion along the lines of harsh judgment and disapproval, almost condemnation of a topic or trend. Someone sees a person or their group (such as their race, religion, disability or nationality) in a negative way. This is a negative belief, but the belief holds these harsh emotions almost embedded in it that gives the stigma the emotional drive. This drive of negativity, condemnation or disapproval is passed on in the voice tone and gestures of people, as well as the actual words. That emotion spreads especially in the voice, (the tones, rhythm, volume, pitch), and also in gestures (hand, fingers, arm), movements (away, toward) and postures (upright, hunched) of people who talk negatively and disparagingly about topics that they have a negative belief about. In that way the emotions are passed on and can be contagious for those people who lean that way, even if they are not consciously aware of it. With emotional contagion, the emotion that someone nearby is expressing or exuding can spread and rub off on people nearby, especially through the voice. Emotions carry simple messages along the lines of attitudes and judgments that are passed along with emotions embedded in them. They go together, the emotions and the beliefs, as the words are spoken.
In the same way, how do rumors become widespread if it weren’t for emotional contagion? How do stars and heroes become popular if it weren’t for contagion, spreading an appealing idea or talent, propelled by emotion, from person to person and group to group in society, through the regular media, through social media and videos? Through sounds, sights, voices, tones, and expressions communicating the excitement and thrills. Not just from the primary source of the idea to each person, but also from one person to another person as they take it in and it spreads among people in the population via emotional and social contagion. The thrills rub off on each other, if we feel inclined to agree. Having the emotion rub off on us, if we were to be that person, will heighten our emotional experience about it. Some people think acceptance of a new fad, trend or idea comes from hearsay. It is involved, but it is much more than that. The main factor is that emotions of excitement, eagerness, and enthusiasm are moved between people via emotional contagion. When we pick these feelings up, we are usually moved by them also, they rub off on us. We don’t usually reject someone’s excitement or stop it from affecting or influencing us unless we know definitely that we are not interested in the topic or need more information, logic or data to accept it. But even then the emotion connected with it would twig our curiosity and interest. What is hearsay anyway and how did it become a phrase in the vernacular if it weren’t for contagion? The emotion that is picked up makes it meaningful as it affects us emotionally as it is more than just information. Information is just a fact, like someone’s address. But if it is a story about someone, there is often unspoken emotion that is passed on to someone else. When people hear the news that is interesting to them they don’t just hear it 1-1 from the news source and leave it at that. They take it with them as an emotion although it may be a small emotion, or affect that touches them inside. They’re excited, worried, interested, whatever the influence is. And they pass it on to others through emotional contagion.
The emotions are contagious, we may want them to affect us too. Oh not in everything they hear. Some things are boring and they soon forget about that and it doesn’t pass on. There is no contagion from boredom. We can sense that if someone, for example someone who isn’t interested in sports, hears and passes on a story about sports that is interesting to a sports fanatic. They just pick up the information from the person but are left hanging by the lack of emotional investment on the part of the uninterested person.
Otherwise when the messenger is emotionally invested in the message, whatever it is, it’s the emotion that delivers the excitement, the thrills, the joy of the message, and with it the power that drives it home and makes people believe it and accept it. The brain has some power in its calculations as to the logic and the fit of the actual message in the facts, details and numbers involved in these cognitive processes, but the calculations and logic are not contagious like the emotions and it is the contagion in the emotion that provides the power and the meaning and spreads it around to others at a visceral or heart-felt level that makes it meaningful. And when the cognitive and the emotional processes jive, then we have a bonafide new development.