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Contagious Crying Revisited: A Cross-Cultural Investigation Into Infant Emotion Contagion Using Infrared Thermal

C Vreden¹, E Renner^1,2, H E Ainamani³

¹Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK.

Developmental Science

|January 15, 2025

Summary

Infants show emotional contagion to peer distress, not just due to aversive sounds. This early sensitivity to others' emotions in infancy forms the basis for empathy development.

Keywords:

cross‐cultural emotional contagion empathy infrared thermal imaging

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Infant Emotional Development
Cross-Cultural Psychology

Background:

Contagious crying in infants is a potential early marker for emotional sensitivity and empathy.
Previous research lacks cross-cultural data and hasn't distinguished between emotional content and acoustic properties of crying.
Existing studies are heavily biased towards European and North American samples.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate infant emotional contagion in response to peer distress using a cross-cultural sample.
To differentiate between the emotional content of crying and its acoustic properties in eliciting infant distress.
To explore early empathy development by examining infant responses to social and non-social auditory stimuli.

Main Methods:

Utilized infrared thermal imaging and behavioral markers to measure emotional arousal in 10- to 11-month-old infants.
Employed a contagious crying paradigm with social stimuli (laughter, crying, babbling) and a matched artificial aversive sound.
Included a cross-cultural sample of infants from rural and urban Uganda and the United Kingdom (N=313).

Main Results:

Infant nasal temperature changes were greater for crying and laughing compared to an artificial aversive sound.
Infants exhibited larger temperature changes in response to crying than to babbling.
Behavioral responses were stronger for crying stimuli compared to both the artificial sound and laughter.

Conclusions:

Infants demonstrate emotional contagion to peer distress, indicating sensitivity beyond mere acoustic aversion.
Findings support the role of emotional contagion in early empathy development.
This study provides crucial cross-cultural insights into infant emotional responsiveness.