Emotional contagion is the ability of a person to spark an emotional reaction in others and spread that emotion across groups. This skill comes more naturally to charismatic people who already have the advantage of convincing others more easily – granted that this charisma is somehow innate or learned from past experience. (See charisma-as-a-personality-trait)
Likewise, I might see people as more charismatic who evoked a certain emotion inside me. (See charisma-as-an-attributional-quality)
The behaviour of sharing emotions is not only relevant in humans, it’s also part of the lives of primates, dogs and even chickens.
References
- Taken from @niebuhr2020a. Term first defined in @hatfield1993.
- emotionale Ansteckung – Dorsch - Lexikon der Psychologie
- Bono, J.E. and Ilies, R.: Charisma, positive emotions and mood contagion. The Leadership Quarterly 17, 2006, S. 317–334.