Building models of how emotions spread over the Internet requires certain assumptions what actually happens within the nodes that compose a network: Individuals. Does reading an emotional post of another person who is not known to the reader create emotions? Are the emotions experienced by sender vs. receiver the same, or can they be complementary? One of the assumptions of appraisal theory is that the elicitation of emotions is dependent on personal relevance – does that mean that propagation of emotions online requires shared personal relevance?

In our laboratory we have created several experimental situations that provide a microscopic view on some of the affective processes that are associated with reading and writing contents on the Internet either in asynchronous contexts, such as forums, or synchronous contexts, such as chats. We have assessed subjective experience, facial responses, and physiological activation associated with the autonomic nervous system. Our findings support the notion that emotions can travel from person to person and seem to be moderated by psychological constructs, such as relevance or social relationships, but they do not depend on them.

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1. The Psychology of (Cyber)Emotions