EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL CONTAGION AND ATTAINABILITY OF MORAL ELEVATION ON ANTAGONISM

Abstract

Past research has shown that experiencing moral elevation encourages individuals to behave in prosocial manners. At the same time, experiencing acts of unattainable moral elevation causes viewers to experience negative emotions like a drop in self-esteem which incites antagonistic behaviours. Emotional contagion through online comments on morally elevating videos also result in a transfer of both positive and negative emotions from other users to the viewer. The present study posits that viewing unattainable morally elevating videos accompanied by negative comments will increase the display of antagonism among participants. Participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (moral elevation: attainable vs unattainable) x 2 (emotional contagion: positive vs negative) fully between-subjects design. Manipulation checks found moral elevation successfully induced in participants but only a significant main effect of emotional contagion on antagonism was found. Additional analyses found that religious individuals reported higher levels of moral elevation than non-religious individuals. Results provide evidence for the effect online emotional contagion of comments on morally elevating videos has on displays of antagonism.