Arousal increases social transmission of information

Social transmission is everywhere. I suggest that transmission is driven in part by arousal. Physiological arousal is characterized by activation of the autonomic nervous system, and the mobilization provided by this excitatory state may boost sharing. This hypothesis not only suggests why content that evokes more of certain emotions (e.g., disgust) may be shared more than other content, but also suggests a more precise prediction, namely, that emotions characterized by high arousal, such as anxiety or amusement, will boost sharing more than emotions characterized by low arousal, such as sadness or contentment. This idea was tested in two experiments. They examined how manipulations that increase general arousal (i.e., watching emotional videos or jogging in place) affect the social transmission of unrelated content. Findings suggest that arousal-inducing content should be shared more than content that does not induce arousal. More broadly, the findings suggest how psychological processes might shape collective outcomes. Overall, this work sheds light on what people talk about and why and how internal states (i.e., arousal) shape interpersonal communication.