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.