Mediated Cues of Group Emotion during Knowledge-Work Tasks: Effects on Subjective and Physiological Responses
We examined how mediated cues of group emotion influence the emotional state of the members of a non-co-located group when performing knowledge-work tasks in a laboratory. The emotion displayed was determined by the experimenter and the participants were led to believe that there were three other group members simultaneously performing the same tasks (four routine tasks and four planning tasks) in different rooms. Prevailing emotional state of the group (depressed, nervous/stressed, pleasantly excited and pleasantly relaxed), allegedly based on self-report, was displayed in textual format on a web page before the first task and after each task. Facial electromyographic (EMG) activity and electrodermal activity (EDA) were recorded during task performance. Negative cues of group emotion elicited lower self-reported pleasure, lower perceived confidence in the other group members, higher corrugator supercilii EMG activity and higher EDA compared with cues of positive group emotions. Planning tasks elicited higher self-reported pleasure and arousal, lower corrugator EMG activity, and higher EDA compared with routine tasks. The results suggest that mediated textual cues of group emotion can lead to emotional contagion to the individual group members during distributed knowledge work.
emotional contagion knowledge work psychophysiology distributed work