emotional contagion

the rapid spread of an emotion from one or a few individuals to others. For example, fear of catching a disease can spread rapidly through a community. See also behavioral contagion; mass contagion; social contagion.

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Psychology term of the day

December 20th 2024

consistent missing

in parapsychology experiments using Zener cards or similar targets, the phenomenon in which a participant’s “calls,” or guesses, are consistently wrong or significantly below chance expectations. Some people attribute such systematic failure to processing error or a conscious or nonconscious reluctance to confirm psychic ability. See also psi-missing.