| In recent years, unconventional emergencies frequently happened in China, which caused huge damages to human life and properties. Fear contagion is one of reasons for the diffusion of group behavior in unconventional emergencies. Individuals show fearful responses when they watch others’ fearful responses. Fear contagion leads to group behavior, which may cause second-level damages in unconventional emergencies.In order to examine fear contagion in unconventional emergencies, we need to solve two problems:first, whether fear contagion exists in unconventional emergencies and what’s the neural mechanism of fear contagion? Second, what’s the influential factors of fear contagion? Whether gender or types of others’ emotions play a role in fear contagion? What’s the reason for the influence of gender or types of others’ emotions on fear contagion? Thus, we designed four studies to solve these problems.In the first study, we used questionaires to test whether fear contagion existed in unconventional emergencies. This method was used by prior researchers. Also, we would examine whether gender had an effect on fear contagion. This study was compared with previous studies.In the second study, functional near-infrared spectroscopy and biotracing equipment were used to examine the neural mechanism of individuals when fear contagion happened. We collected evidences from behavioral and neural levels to explain the mechanism of fear contagion.In the third study, event-related potential was employed to test whether individuals’ cognition would change after fear contagion. After others showed fearful responses to someone or something, we examined that whether individuals changed cognitive processes on someone or something.In the fourth study, we explored the influential factors of fear contagion. Whether types of others’ emotions had an effect on fear contagion. When others showed different emotions to someone or something, we tested whether fear contagion existed or not.According to the above four studies, we come to the following conclusions: First, fear contagion existed in unconventional emergencies. In addition, females are more likely to be influenced by others’ fearful responses than males. Second, when fear contagion happened, medial prefrontal cortex, which located in mirror system, was activated. Oxygen-hemoglobin concentration increased when individuals watched others’ fearful responses. Furthermore, skin conductance responses were larger when individuals watched others’ fearful responses.Third, after fear contagion, individuals’ cognitive processes on someone or something would change. When individuals watched others showing fearful expressions to faces, individuals would give lower facial attractiveness ratings compared with that showing smiling expressions. Mean amplitudes of P300decreased during facial attractiveness ratings after fear contagion.Fourth, types of others’ emotions had an effect on fear contagion. When others showed different emotions to faces, facial attractiveness ratings was not influenced by others emotions. Also, mean amplitudes of P300was not influenced by others’ emotions.The present research is insightful for the following reasons. First, the research was based on unconventional emergencies. Previous studies on fear contagion was not under the context of unconventional emergencies. The research is associated with previous researches and lays the foundation of future studies. Second, with the employment of functional near-infrared spectroscopy and biotracing equipment, the present research avoids the demerits of too much noise, which was popular in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. In addition, the tools in our study are flexible and allow participants to move during experiments. Also, our study provides more evidences to explain mechanism of fear contagion. We observed increased oxygenate-hemoglobin concentration in medial prefrontal cortex. This result may be another evidence for imitation-feedback model. Third, event-related potential was used to test change of cognitive process after fear contagion. This study expands previous research field of social influence. We found that mean amplitudes of P300were influenced by others’ emotions during facial attractiveness perception. This would be an good example for researchers to study emotion contagion by using neuroscientific tools. Fourth, with the help of event-related potential, we examined the influence of types of others’ emotions on fear contagion. |
