The aim of the present study was to test the classic but under-researched hypothesis that individual differences in automatic emotional mimicry are positively related to individual differences in emotional contagion. To tap automatic mimicry and automatic emotional contagion, participants were exposed to affective stimuli with either a positive or negative valence (faces with a happy expression, n = 73; faces with a sad expression, n = 73) while their attention was directed toward nonaffective features of the stimuli. Emotional mimicry was measured with EMG (Corrugator, Zygomaticus). On average, in the sad emotional expression condition, participants’ mood worsened, but the happy emotional expression condition did not evoke a general positive emotional contagion effect (across participants). Multigroup multilevel latent difference models revealed that in the sad emotional expression condition, individual differences in Corrugator activity were related to a larger increase in unpleasant mood, and in the happy emotional expression condition, individual differences in Zygomaticus activity were related to a larger decrease in unpleasant mood. That is, results of this study provided support for the mimicry-contagion link.

中文翻译：

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那些喜欢模仿面部表情的人是否特别容易受到情绪感染？

本研究的目的是检验经典但尚未研究的假说，即自动情绪模仿中的个体差异与情绪传染中的个体差异正相关。要利用自动模仿和自动情绪感染的方法，将参与者暴露于具有正或负价态的情感刺激下（表情为快乐的表情，n  = 73；表情为悲伤的表情，n = 73） = 73），而他们的注意力都集中在刺激的非情感特征上。用EMG（Corrugator，Zygomaticus）测量情绪模仿。平均而言，在悲伤的情绪表达条件下，参与者的情绪恶化，但快乐的情绪表达条件并未引起普遍的积极情绪传染效应（跨参与者）。多组多级潜伏差异模型显示，在悲伤的情绪表达条件下，瓦楞纸箱活动的个体差异与不愉快情绪的增加有关；在快乐的情绪表达条件下，Z肌活动的个体差异与不愉快的情绪下降有较大关系心情。就是说，这项研究的结果为模仿-传染联系提供了支持。