Emotional contagion effects on product attitudes

Two experiments examine the existence of, and explanation for, emotional co ntagion effects on product attitudes. In the first experiment, emotional co ntagion occurred among "receivers" who "caught" a happy emotion from "sende rs" whom the receivers liked. The relationship between the emotion experien ced by senders and receivers was found to be mediated by receivers mimickin g smiling on the part of senders. Exposing receivers to happy senders they liked also resulted in receivers having a positive attitudinal bias toward a product. The happiness experienced by receivers via contagion was found t o mediate the effects of sender emotion and receiver liking of the sender o n receiver product attitudes. The second experiment replicated the first wh ile demonstrating that observation of the facial expressions of senders by receivers, thus allowing mimicking of smiling, was a necessary condition fo r emotional contagion to occur. The relevance of emotional contagion for un derstanding consumer behavior across various substantive domains is discuss ed.