Emotions are not always contagious: Longitudinal spreading of self-pride and group pride in homogeneous and status-differentiated groups

Abstract

The members of task groups are emotionally more similar to each other than to others outside the group; yet, little is known about the conditions under which this emotional similarity emerges. In two longitudinal studies, we tested the idea that emotions only spread when they contain information that is relevant to all group members. We compared the spreading of group pride (relevant) with self-pride (not relevant). The first study followed emotions in 68 task groups (N = 295) across 4 moments. Multilevel cross-lagged path analyses showed that group members mutually influenced each other's group pride, but not self-pride. The second study followed emotions in 27 task groups (N = 195) across 3 moments in time. Longitudinal social network analyses showed that group members adjusted their group pride, but not their self-pride, to members they perceived to be more influential. Findings from both studies are consistent with a social referencing account of emotion spreading.

Keywords:

• Group emotions
• Contagion
• Social referencing
• Pride
• Status networks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

¹ Previous research has distinguished two forms of pride: authentic and hubristic pride (Tracy & Robins, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c). In the current research, we studied authentic pride, which has been found most relevant in achievement contexts. In the first study, we used a two-item pride scale (as described in the Method section) containing the two most common words for pride in Flemish Dutch. One of these words (“fier”) can only be used in the sense of authentic pride; the other word (“trots”) can on occasion refer to hubristic pride. However, both the mean ratings and high correlation between the items make it more plausible that participants used it to express authentic pride. Moreover, in both studies, pride items were positively associated with self-esteem and collective-esteem respectively, which is another indication that they pertained to authentic pride (Tracy & Robins, 2007c, Studies 2 and 7).

² A table with the correlations between individual members’ and the group's self-pride and group pride across different time points can be found in the Online Supplementary Materials (Table S1).

³ Although we aimed to make the spread of the questionnaire as equal as possible between the measurement moments, there are differences in the time gaps between the questionnaires. We aimed to have the first questionnaire after the group already worked together for some time. We chose week 7 out of practical considerations, because at that time, the group leaders had the opportunity to hand out the questionnaire to their group members. The large time gap between the first wave (week 7) and the second wave (week 21) was due to a large holiday and exam break of six weeks in between. We decided to distribute the second questionnaire four weeks after the break, so that group members got used to work together again. Finally, the last questionnaire was handed out to the group members immediately after they presented their work to an external jury (week 24), thus right before their group's dissolution.

⁴ A table with the correlations between self-pride and group-pride across different time points can be found in the Online Supplementary Materials (Table S2).

⁵ The complete models that we tested can be found in the Supplementary Online Materials (Tables S3 and S4).