Worry spreads: Interpersonal transfer of problem-related anxiety

Abstract

This paper distinguishes processes potentially contributing to interpersonal anxiety transfer, including object-directed social appraisal, empathic worry, and anxiety contagion, and reviews evidence for their operation. We argue that these anxiety-transfer processes may be exploited strategically when attempting to regulate relationship partners’ emotion. More generally, anxiety may serve as either a warning signal to other people about threat (alerting function) or an appeal for emotional support or practical help (comfort-seeking function). Tensions between these two interpersonal functions may account for mutually incongruent interpersonal responses to expressed anxiety, including mistargeted interpersonal regulation attempts. Because worry waxes and wanes over time as a function of other people's ongoing reactions, interpersonal interventions may help to alleviate some of its maladaptive consequences.

Keywords:

• Worry
• Social appraisal
• Empathic worry
• Interpersonal meta-worry
• Emotion contagion
• Emotion regulation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Work on this article was conducted as part of project EROS (Emotion Regulation of Others and Self, RES-060-25-0044) and supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK.

Notes

¹Because this excerpt represents a dialogue between two participants in which paralinguistic information carries additional meaning, we have annotated it using the Jefferson system (Jefferson, 1985). The symbols indicate information such as short pauses (indicated by parentheses containing periods), long pauses (indicated by parentheses containing the length of the pause in seconds), overlapping speech (indicated by squared brackets), intakes of breath (.hh), emphasis (indicated by underlining), relative speed of speech (indicated by greater than or less than signs:>& <), auditory volume (small circles indicating quietness), and rises and falls in intonation (indicated by upward and downward arrows).