User:Tivooo/sandbox

(ideas for the emotional contagion page)

Etymology/Definition
''Contagion and emotional contagion can be blended in to the paragraphs already present in this section maybe? Or the article as a whole can be cleaned up so there's a separate definition section. ''

Contagion
Contagion is the act of quickly spreading, commonly influential information among individuals or groups. With the introduction of the internet and online media resources, information online is enhanced in its contagious aspects.

Emotional Contagion
Emotional contagion is the coming together, or convergence of an individual's emotional states with another. These individuals or groups of people may be observing or interacting with each other. A dyadic interaction is a direct production of emotional contagion. When relaying or "forwarding" information from one individual to another creates "indirectly" shared emotions, however. An example of this is when watching a clip of a video online, the viewer may experience the same emotions as people in the clip. Sharing this clip means that the original viewer anticipates the receiver will experience similar emotions.

Emotional contagion in workplaces and organizations
''There's already subsections labeled intragroup and employee/customer, should there be a new subsection for in-group vs. out-group? The rest of the below subsection revolves around this concept.''

In-group vs. out-group tendencies in internet memes and emotional contagion
In terms of what is popular on the internet, videos that are cute, humorous, or emotionally arousing tend to garner more attention and "views" and gain more reactions. This is more relevant when considering the increase of people using the internet as an emotional medium. The age group for people using the internet has expanded past teenagers and people in their early twenties, to many working people in the office and older age groups who have been taught or are comfortable with the introduction of increasingly high-end technology and video-viewing sources. A shared video clip is usually more contagious within an in-group (an exclusive group of individuals who share an interest or identity). An out-group (an individual not considered part of the in-group) may get more attention from a video that is perceived to be negatively-associated with them when shared among in-group members.

An internet meme is the digital version of single bits of cultural information that are shared or spread from person to person. It may be altered in content, with variation, selection, and retention. The overall message of a successful internet meme is commonly retained even with each variation. It is transmitted to the population through social learning. Viewers may adopt or reject cultural traits from this through complex emotional and cognitive processes. Many of these memes have the commonality of providing social commentary and/or humor.
 * Internet Memes

A video may go viral (circulate rapidly) for a number of reasons. The people viewing it tend to email articles that evoke positive affect, anger, or anxiety. They seem to email sad videos the least often. Social talk between in-group members directed towards out-group members displaying anger-inducing feelings may heighten negative feelings from in-group members towards out-group members and actually bolster positive perceptions within in-group members. This might also strengthen self-esteem as a whole for the in-group.
 * Virality

Social Validation is the tendency for individuals to look to others in the in-group to see what others are doing to determine if a behavior is normative and appropriate. When the environment is giving neutral or ambiguous emotional cues, or vibes, people may rely on the direction of others. When one member receives a forwarded internet meme from an in-group member, this is a cue that it is okay to forward it to others within the group.
 * Social Validation

Funny videos always seem to have a positive effect no matter the source of the video, whether it be from in-group members or an out-group. Diffuse, or scattered arousal from a video is still more likely forwarded than negative arousal from a video. Negative arousal, however, will still gain more forwards than videos that have no/non arousal tendencies. In short, only the content that generates stronger affective responses, whether it be negative or positive are likely to spread as a viral video. Contagion may be more likely online due to the ease with which information can be transmitted between individuals, no matter the group.
 * Video source vs. video material

"Yes We Can": The emotionally contagious viral Obama campaign video of 2008
This video is a great example of how an internet campaign video was very contagious in nature and targeted the right age groups at the right time to spur on Barack Obama's campaign slogan. It spread from its online source to television and print. It can be pegged as an explicit type of emotional contagion, but because of the nature of the campaign of that year, may also have some implicit base tendencies.