Résumé
Emotional contagion refers to the spread of emotions between individuals through emotional expressions, enhancing social interactions by increasing liking and rapport. However, emotional contagion is influenced by social factors, potentially leading to social isolation for individuals facing public stigma. This study explored the impact of the 'schizophrenia' label on healthy individuals' susceptibility to emotional contagion. Participants watched videos of an actor expressing joy and sadness, described by one of four labels: 'schizophrenia', 'diabetes', 'healthy', or 'lazy'. Emotional contagion was measured with affect questionnaires before and after the videos, along with actor liking. Contrary to our hypothesis, labels had no significant effect on susceptibility to emotional contagion. However, they significantly influenced actor liking, with the 'diabetes' label generating significantly more liking than the others. While the 'lazy' label resulted in the lowest liking, participants showed similar levels of liking for the 'schizophrenia' and 'healthy' labels. Ultimately, we found that participants' liking for the actor mediated the relationship between the labels and emotional contagion, an effect observed across all labels, aligning with findings from previous studies. This study is consistent with previous research showing that individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia are evaluated differently from those with other health conditions, likely due to the stigma surrounding this diagnosis. These findings underscore the importance of continuing efforts to reduce such stigma.