The Importance of Social Learning

Social learning is by far and away the most influential way that people develop their behavioral repertoire. We learn how to behave, how to act in all the different settings by imitating unconsciously others and reenacting. Encoding and mirroring other people's emotional states and behaviors is healthy so long as it doesn't dislodge us from our current life circumstances. Emotion contagion occurs when our internal states are overly influenced by the states of other people's nervous systems or other people's emotions.