首因效應可能通過對他人情緒真實性判斷的影響間接作用于情緒感染的效果。研究采用兩因素混合設計。首先向兩組被試散布有關教師的"正面信息"或"負面信息",然后通過觀看該教師的朗誦視頻來測量教師的情緒感染力以及教師的情緒真實性。所不同的是在實驗組與對照組中使用了不同的信息散布方式,實驗組采用情境引導,對照組采用抽簽引導。研究結果表明,實驗組成功建立了關于教師的第一印象,并對情緒真實性判斷和情緒感染產生影響,出現首因效應。而對照組未成功建立第一印象,因此沒有出現情緒感染的首因效應。路徑分析表明,首因效應通過情緒真實性判斷對情緒感染產生完全中介效應。

Whether or not the first impression that precedes emotional contagion and influences the final effect of emotional contagion is not clear. A mixed two-factor design was used to investigate this issue. The participants were divided into two matched groups by the Emotional Contagion Scale. Firstly, each participant received a positive evaluation on a teacher or a negative evaluation on another teacher. Different ways of spreading the information were used in two groups. Specifically, one way of spreading the positive or negative evaluation on a teacher was sent out by a fake participant for the experiment group; the other way was to spread the positive or negative evaluation by drawing lots for the control group. After that, positive emotional videos of the teachers’ lecture were shown to all participants. Then their first impression on the teachers, authenticity judgement to the teachers’ emotion, and the level of emotional contagion from teachers were measured respectively. The results showed that the first impression on the teachers, which could affect students’ authenticity judgment to the teacher’s emotion, was established in the experiment group, but not in the control group. It means the primacy effect had a significant impact on emotional contagion in the experiment group. However, the first impression on the teacher was not established in the control group, which means the primacy effect had no significant effect on emotional contagion. The path analysis showed that the primacy effect regulated emotional contagion via the authenticity judgment to emotion.