EMOTIONAL CONTAGION - GENDER AND OCCUPATIONAL DIFFERENCES

Theorists have proposed that men and women and those in various occupa tional groups should differ in their susceptibility to primitive emoti onal contagion. Study 1 was designed to explore the extent to which ge nder and occupation affected respondents' self-reports of emotional co ntagion, as measured by the Emotional Contagion (EC) scale. As predict ed, women in a variety of occupations secured higher total EC scores t han did men. Study 2 was designed to determine the extent to which gen der affected self-reports of emotional contagion (again as measured by the EC scale) and actual responsiveness to others' emotions. As predi cted, women received higher EC scores, reported sharing the targets' e motions to a greater extent, and were rated by judges as displaying mo re emotional contagion than did men.