Vulnerability to Emotional Contagion May Stress Older Adults

Older adults who are sensitive to the distress of others are more likely to feel anxious or depressed themselves because of a psychological mechanism called “emotional contagion,” researchers suggested.

Emotional contagion is an adaptive response that occurs unconsciously when people mimic the facial expressions, gestures, and postures of others, leading to a convergence of emotions.

“Just as some people are more likely to catch a respiratory virus through close contact, others are more susceptible to ‘catching’ the emotions of the people around them,” said Marie-Josée Richer, PhD, a psychoeducator at the University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Vulnerability to emotional contagion emerged as the strongest factor contributing to psychological distress in Richer’s cross-sectional study of 170 older adults who were dealing with adversity. Those who were most vulnerable to emotional contagion were 8.5-10 times more likely to present symptoms of anxiety or anxious depression than those who were less vulnerable.

This research is part of a series of studies on stress contagion led by Pierrich Plusquellec, also of the University of Montreal and principal investigator of the current study.

“We aimed to explore elements of contagion among older adults in light of the known physiological changes in their ability to regulate stress and emotions and the daily contexts of proximity, such as caregiving and community living in a retirement home, which may increase opportunities for emotional contagion,” Richer told Medscape Medical News.

The study was published online on October 29 in PLOS Mental Health.

Dealing With Adversity

Researchers explored a wide range of factors — sociodemographic aspects, indicators of autonomy, social support, coping styles, vulnerability to emotional contagion, and empathy — to assess which ones most influenced two profiles of psychological distress and one profile with no distress.

This cross-sectional study included 170 older adults (mean age, 76 years; 85% women) living in a community setting in Quebec. Sixty percent lived alone, 90% completed at least secondary school, and most had annual incomes between $21,000 and $60,000. All participants were dealing with some type of adversity, which was defined as challenges, obstacles, or difficult conditions such as bereavement or conflict with a spouse (explicit adversity) or vulnerability to emotional contagion (implicit adversity).

As assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, 65.9% of participants had a clinical or subthreshold level of anxiety and depression. Based on the scale’s clinical cutoff scores for the anxiety and depression subscales, the researchers grouped participants according to one of three profiles: No distress, anxiety (44% of participants), and anxious depression (21%).

All between-group demographic indicators were similar except for sex: There was a slightly higher-than-expected proportion of men in the anxious depression group.

Vulnerability to emotional contagion, satisfaction with their social network, and coping styles emerged as factors that increased the likelihood of being in either of the psychological distress groups, relative to individuals with no distress.

All groups differed in perceived stress due to adversity. Individuals with no distress symptoms reported significantly less stress than those in the other two groups. Those with anxiety symptoms alone reported less stress than those with anxious depression. In addition, the use of medication to treat anxiety or depression was higher than expected for those in the anxious depression group.

After controlling for adversity and psychotropic treatment, vulnerability to emotional contagion had the strongest relationship with both psychological distress profiles. This was a “surprising” result, according to Richer.

Coping styles also differed between the groups. Overall, participants in the anxious depression group used less proactive, reflective, strategic planning, preventive, and emotional support strategies than those in the other two groups.

The authors acknowledged that recruitment bias could have affected the results, given that more than 75% of the sample lived in high-end private residences. In addition, the cross-sectional design of the study precluded speculation on causation.

Nevertheless, they concluded, “Our results support the value of interventions like programs aimed at improving satisfaction with one’s social network and enhancing the cognitive mastery of emotional contagion to reduce or prevent psychological distress in the growing aging populations.”

“When supporting individuals experiencing psychological distress, assessing the emotional state of their social environment — rather than just its level of support — seems essential,” said Richer. “A deterioration in the emotional state of the social environment, combined with an increased vulnerability to being affected by others’ emotions, could also serve as an indicator of mental health risk.

“We believe it may be possible to teach individuals how to better navigate the positive and negative impacts of emotional contagion,” she continued. “The first step would involve psychoeducation about this type of adversity and its role. The second step would focus on emotional regulation and coping strategies to help individuals manage the emotions they absorb from others.”

Good Emotions, Too?

Commenting on the study for Medscape Medical News, Alan Cohen, PhD, associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, said, “This makes some sense, but probably susceptibility to emotional contagion works for good emotions, too, and has benefits earlier in life.” He cited better social skills, better ability to gauge the mood of a crowd, and more empathy as examples.

“Natural selection probably maintains a balance and diversity of emotional contagion capacities in human populations, and there are likely pros and cons to being anywhere on the spectrum,” he said.

“Maybe the right ‘treatment’ would be to expose these people to positive emotional environments. They should benefit the most,” he added. “But further research is needed to see if [emotional contagion] really is symmetrical for good and bad emotions, and if not, what it means.”

Richer and Cohen reported having no relevant financial relationships.

Marilynn Larkin, MA, is an award-winning medical writer and editor whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Medscape Medical News and its sister publication MDedge, The Lancet (where she was a contributing editor), and Reuters Health.