A Role for the Contagion of Emotion? A Comment on Segrin (2004)

The question of whether emotional contagion does or does not occur could have significant implications for the treatment and prevention of depression. Wediscuss Segrin's 2004 study—published in JSCP—on relational concordance for negative emotion and suggest ways to integrate Segrin's findings with previous literature that is supportive of the phenomenon of contagious depression. We suggest that emotional contagion may be most likely to occur (1) when one relational partner is depressed and another engages in excessive reassurance seeking, (2) when relational partners are especially close, and (3) when the object of transmission is depressive symptoms versus negative mood. We suggest that future research is needed to specify with greater precision when the emotional contagion versus assortative relating hypothesis is most likely to apply.