Arousal and Social Transmission

Arousal and Social Transmission

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

The claim that activation, more than tone, drives sharing.

What it is

The claim, set out by Jonah Berger in Contagious, that the level of physiological arousal matters more than whether a feeling is pleasant. High-arousal states such as awe, amusement, anger and anxiety push people to share, and low-arousal states such as sadness and contentment do so less.

In effect

In the article on emotional arousal, it is the claim that later work puts to the test, through a 2019 study of shared video ads and 2024 replications of the original experiment.

What it does not say

The 2024 replications found no effect of incidental physiological arousal on willingness to share, so the claim is not settled. The claim concerns arousal and sharing in particular situations and does not say that arousal explains all sharing.

Sources

  1. Berger, J. Contagious.
  2. Prowten, S., Walker, E., London, B., Pearce, E., Napoli, A., Chenevert, B., Clevenger, C., & Smith, A. R. (2024). Does physiological arousal increase social transmission of information? Two replications of Berger (2011). Psychological Science.
  3. Tellis, G. J., MacInnis, D. J., Tirunillai, S., & Zhang, Y. (2019). What drives virality (sharing) of online digital content? The critical role of information, emotion, and brand prominence. Journal of Marketing.