Are Attitudes Contagious?

The Influence of Biased Nonverbal Signals

Imagine boarding a crowded London Underground train. Amongst the bustle, you notice that several passengers are subtly edging away from one particular person. You observe carefully – nothing about the individual appears outwardly unusual. Nevertheless, you find yourself feeling a twinge of unease, a vague discomfort you can't quite explain.

This everyday experience highlights a profound psychological phenomenon: nonverbal signals from others can shape our attitudes, even toward strangers, and even in the absence of any overt information.

Research suggests that attitudes – whether positive or negative – can be contagious, spreading through social environments via nonverbal cues (Skinner & Perry, 2020).

The Subtle Power of Nonverbal Cues

Nonverbal behaviour plays a powerful role in the transmission of social biases. Studies have shown that observers who witness others displaying negative nonverbal signals toward members of familiar social groups (e.g., based on race) subsequently develop more negative attitudes themselves (Weisbuch et al., 2009; Willard et al., 2015).

For instance, Castelli et al. (2012) found that when participants observed a White individual exhibiting negative nonverbal behaviours towards a Black individual, their own implicit and explicit biases increased against the Black target. Notably, similar effects have been observed even among young children (Castelli et al., 2008), underscoring the early development of sensitivity to nonverbal social cues.

Attitude Formation Without Words

Across several studies by Skinner and Perry (2020), participants exposed to biased nonverbal signals — such as consistently positive signals toward one individual and consistently negative signals toward another — developed more positive attitudes towards the individual who received positive nonverbal feedback, despite having no other information about them.

Importantly, these studies controlled for racial and other group biases by using White targets exclusively. This suggests that nonverbal signals alone — not cultural stereotypes — were responsible for shaping observers' attitudes.

These findings align with theories of social learning (Bandura, 1971) and the Representation and Incorporation of Close Others’ Responses (RICOR) model (Smith & Mackie, 2015), which propose that humans automatically internalise others’ attitudes and behaviours simply by observing them.

In essence, we are wired to learn whom to trust, avoid, or favour based not only on direct experience, but also through the subtle nonverbal reactions of those around us.

Evaluative Conditioning and Vicarious Bias

The phenomenon can also be understood through the lens of evaluative conditioning — the process by which attitudes are shaped by the pairing of neutral stimuli (like unfamiliar individuals) with positive or negative cues (De Houwer et al., 2001). Whether it's a pleasant smile or an avoidance glance, these small, often unconscious cues accumulate to form lasting impressions.

Moreover, attitudes formed through this kind of observational learning are sticky. They can extend beyond the initial target to others associated with them (Walther, 2002), and they can persist even when the observer has had no direct negative or positive interaction with the person concerned (Castelli et al., 2004).

This Matters: The Silent Spread of Bias

Understanding the contagious nature of attitudes via nonverbal signals is crucial for promoting fairness and inclusivity. Without awareness, subtle collective behaviours — a slightly longer hesitation, a glance of discomfort — can foster environments where certain individuals are systematically marginalised or favoured based purely on others’ unconscious reactions.

The stakes are high: biased nonverbal behaviours, when left unchecked, can perpetuate social divisions not because of any explicit prejudice, but because of the powerful, silent influence of group dynamics.

Conclusion

Watch Your Signals. Next time you find yourself feeling wary around someone you know nothing about, it’s worth asking: Is this truly my instinct — or am I reflecting the attitudes of those around me?

Awareness of how nonverbal signals affect us not only empowers us to resist unearned biases but also challenges us to become more responsible senders of nonverbal information. Because in the world beyond words, attitudes are contagious — and we all play a role in what spreads.

References

• Bandura, A. (1971). Social Learning Theory. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

• Castelli, L., Carraro, L., Pavan, G., Murelli, M., & Carraro, A. (2012). The transmission of racial bias via nonverbal behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology, 51(2), 270–281.

• Castelli, L., De Dea, C., & Nesdale, D. (2008). Learning social attitudes: Children’s sensitivity to the nonverbal behaviours of adult models during interracial interactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(11), 1504–1513.

• Castelli, L., Zogmaister, C., Smith, E. R., & Arcuri, L. (2004). On the automatic evaluation of social exemplars. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(3), 373–387.

• De Houwer, J., Thomas, S., & Baeyens, F. (2001). Associative learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning. Psychological Bulletin, 127(6), 853–869.

• Skinner, A. L., & Perry, S. P. (2020). Attitude acquisition from biased nonverbal signals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(4), 512–527.

• Smith, E. R., & Mackie, D. M. (2015). Representation and incorporation of close others’ responses: The RICOR model of social influence. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19(1), 30–61.

• Walther, E. (2002). Guilty by mere association: Evaluative conditioning and the spreading attitude effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 919–934.

• Weisbuch, M., Pauker, K., & Ambady, N. (2009). The subtle transmission of race bias via televised nonverbal behavior. Science, 326(5960), 1711–1714.

• Willard, J., Isaac, C., & Carney, D. R. (2015). The toxic effects of subtle racial bias in health care settings. Medical Care, 53(9), 765–771.