Social appraisal as a cause of collective emotions

Abstract

People communicate their emotions through emotional expressions and are affected by emotions expressed by others. This chapter reviews evidence for emotional contagion and social appraisal accounts of social influences on individuals’ emotions. It distinguishes the processes postulated by these frameworks with reference to their automaticity and proposes a detailed version of social appraisal theory. In particular, it suggests that uncertainty about a situation will affect the extent to which people engage in social appraisal. It also proposes that appraisals of others’ trustworthiness and competence will influence whether others’ expressions are seen as reflecting reliable information about a situation and therefore whether they are integrated into one’s own emotional response. Finally, the interplay between interpersonal bottom-up processes and top-down processes related to group norms in the generation of collective emotions is discussed.

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