In everyday life we actively react to the emotional expressions of others, responding by showing matching, or sometimes contrasting, expressions. Emotional mimicry has important social functions such as signalling affiliative intent and fostering rapport, and is considered one of the cornerstones of successful interactions. This book provides a multidisciplinary overview of research into emotional mimicry and empathy, and explores when, how and why emotional mimicry occurs. Focusing on recent developments in the field, the chapters cover a variety of approaches and research questions, such as the role of literature in empathy and emotional mimicry, the most important brain areas involved in the mimicry of emotions, the effects of specific psychopathologies on mimicry, why smiling may be a special case in mimicry, whether we can also mimic vocal emotional expressions, individual differences in mimicry and the role of social contexts in mimicry.

Within psychology, emotion is often treated as something private and personal. In contrast, this book tries to understand emotion from the 'outside, ' by examining the everyday social settings in which it operates. Three levels of social influence are considered in decreasing order of inclusiveness, starting with the surrounding culture and subculture, moving on to the more delimited organization or group, and finally focusing on the interpersonal setting. At all these levels, emotion is influenced by social factors and has an impact on the way social life proceeds. For example, there are no direct equivalents in many cultures for some of the particular forms of emotion experienced in Western societies, suggesting that not all aspects of emotion are universal or biologically determined. Further, our various social identifications and allegiances partly determine what is emotionally relevant in a situation and how we respond to ingroup and outgroup members' emotions. Finally, emotions are usually occasioned by things that other people say, do, or have done to them, and often change the way interaction with those others proceeds. The book provides a critical review of existing theory and research on these topics from a social psychological perspective, and develops its own distinctive approach by recontextualizing emotion in an integrated cultural, organizational and relational world.

Within psychology, emotion is often treated as something private and personal. In contrast, this book tries to understand emotion from the 'outside' by examining the everyday social settings in which it operates. Three levels of social influence are considered in decreasing order of inclusiveness, starting with the surrounding culture and subculture, moving on to the more delimited organization or group, and finally focusing on the interpersonal setting. At all these levels, emotion is influenced by social factors and has an impact on the way social life proceeds. For example, there are no direct equivalents in many cultures for some of the particular forms of emotion experienced in Western societies, suggesting that not all aspects of emotion are universal or biologically determined. Further, our various social identifications and allegiances partly determine what is emotionally relevant in a situation and how we respond to ingroup and outgroup members' emotions. Finally, emotions are usually occasioned by things that other people say, do, or have done to them, and often change the way interaction with those others proceeds. topics from a social psychological perspective, and develops its own distinctive approach by recontextualising emotion in an integrated cultural, organisational and relational world.

In everyday life we actively react to the emotional expressions of others, responding by showing matching, or sometimes contrasting, expressions. Emotional mimicry has important social functions such as signalling affiliative intent and fostering rapport, and is considered one of the cornerstones of successful interactions. This book provides a multidisciplinary overview of research into emotional mimicry and empathy, and explores when, how and why emotional mimicry occurs. Focusing on recent developments in the field, the chapters cover a variety of approaches and research questions, such as the role of literature in empathy and emotional mimicry, the most important brain areas involved in the mimicry of emotions, the effects of specific psychopathologies on mimicry, why smiling may be a special case in mimicry, whether we can also mimic vocal emotional expressions, individual differences in mimicry and the role of social contexts in mimicry.

For ages, women have been considered as the emotional sex. The aim of this book is to investigate this stereotype. A wide range of emotions, such as anger, pride, shame, sadness, and joy, and emotional expressions, such as smiling and laughing are covered in the various chapters. The purpose of each chapter is to show whether sex differences have been found in psychological research in relation to one of these aspects of emotion, in which situations these differences were especially strong, and how (the absence of) these differences can be explained. This book is the first in its field to systematically present an overview of research and theory on gender differences in emotion.

For ages, women have been considered as the emotional sex. The aim of this book is to investigate this stereotype. A wide range of emotions, such as anger, pride, shame, sadness, and joy, and emotional expressions, such as smiling and laughing are covered in the various chapters. The purpose of each chapter is to show whether sex differences have been found in psychological research in relation to one of these aspects of emotion, in which situations these differences were especially strong, and how (the absence of) these differences can be explained. This book is the first in its field to systematically present an overview of research and theory on gender differences in emotion.