Hatfield et al, (1992) define emotional contagion as; “the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize movements, expressions, postures and vocalizations with those of another person…” (Hatfield , Cacippo, & Rapson, 1992, pp. 153-154). We mainly notice this in a retail context due to the fact that most, if not all, employees who serve us have been told they have to build relationships with customers. Duclos et al (1989) and Larsen, Kasimatis & Frey (1992) state that contagion should occur when the receiver likes the sender, and even more so when there is a relational bond between them.
Meanwhile, Howard and Gengler (2001) focused on how the contagion effect (mainly happiness) can show a positive bias on our evaluations of specific products. They ran two different experiments that would test their hypotheses; one focused on the manipulation of the sender’s emotions between happy and neutral and how the receiving of a gift can induce the liking of the sender. Whereas the second experiment focused on whether the mimicking of smiling is a necessary condition for the development of emotional contagion (Howard & Genglar, 2001). This was mainly accomplished through an experimental manipulation of the receiver observing the faces of their sender when it came to product evaluations.
They found that in the end both of their studies supported the emotional contagion and how it can have a positive effect on the attitudes that consumers have towards certain products. They also found that the use of mimicry within the emotional contagion was consistent with Hatfield et al’s (1992) afferent feedback model of contagion.
It was mentioned that their study, compared to the likes of Grump and Kulik (1997), actually supported Hatfield based on how the factors involved (positive versus negative) were not identical. Isen (1984) states that positive and negative affects aren’t necessarily on the opposite sides of the bi-polar emotion spectrum and thus they shouldn’t be expected to be symmetrical.
In the end, the use of contagion effect has been seen to work within the retail world. The use of people who serve on tills has to be the most common technique. Working in Tesco you can see how different people can be when they are served by some of my colleagues, some even leave smiling more than they did when they were in the queue. The contagion effect here focuses solely on how these relationships are built within the workplace.
With this knowledge, next time you go shopping try and determine whether or not your experience was made better (or worse) based on who served you.
References
Duclos, S. E., Laird, J. D., Schneider, E., Sexter, M., Stern, L., & Van Lighten, O. (1989). Emotion-Specific Effects of Facial Expressions and Postures on Emotional Experiences . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 100-108.
Grump, B. B., & Kulik, J. A. (1997). Stress, Affiliation and Emotional Contagion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 305-319.
Hatfield , E., Cacippo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1992). Emotional Contagion. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Howard, D. J., & Genglar, C. (2001). Emotional Contagion Effects on Product Attitudes. Journal of Consumer Research, 189-201.
Isen, A. M. (1984). Toward Understanding the Role of Affect in Cognition. In R. Wyer, & T. Srull, Handbook of Social Cognition (pp. 179-236). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Larsen, R. J., Kasimatis, M., & Frey, K. (1992). Facilitating the Furrowed Brow: An Unobtrusive Test of the Facial Feedback Hypothesis Applied to Negative Affect. Cognition and Emotion , 321-338.
theultimateconsumer 
I do enjoy this blog , you bring an interesting topic up. And indeed when I see the smile in any shop somehow makes me hard to refuse the product they sell to me. When you see a facial expression and you want to know what it means, you recreate that expression in your brain. With a smile, we likely to feel we were liked by the person. Therefore, from the paper, more than 100 studies were reviewed to help describe how exactly we simulate the facial expressions of others in social situations.
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This is one of the reasons I cannot stand the till systems at Aldi and Lidl, the shopping experience ends up being extremely unpleasant because realistically there’s no time to make any sort of exchange with the cashier as they’re funneling you through at 50mph.
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Smiling makes all the difference. I found research which suggests that simply just smiling can increase a server’s tip by 140% (Lynn, 1996), a significant amount more than any other interaction like touching the customer on the shoulder or palm or introducing themselves. I kind of wish that all cashiers had a smile on their face as I like having a conversation with people at the till, but I realise that after an 8-hour shift, keeping up the smiling charade can be a bit tiring.
Lynn, M. (1996). Seven ways to increase servers’ tips. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 37(3), 5-29.
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I think a smile can make a difference in the evaluation of a service by the customer, especially if you have been waiting in the queue for the longest time with just a few products, I think the emotional contagion aspect helps to build a relationship wherein the customer feels like he isn’t just another face helping them finish their daily targets but is actually valued.
It might also help with the fact that because of good customer service, it increases customer satisfaction because of which the individual is likely to return to the store setting down the customer loyalty road (Gronholdt, Martensen & Kristensen, 2000)
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