However, oxytocin was found to increase the number of low-pitched vocalizations in the emotional contagion test situation which does suggest that vocalizations could underlie the effect of oxytocin on the behavior of the training pigs.
The behaviors of the two naive pigs in the anticipation and neutral compartment on the last two habituation days, test days 23 and 24, were used to compare with their behavior in the same situation on test day 26, i.e., the emotional contagion test day.
Two of these pigs will later on join the training pigs in the test room to test for emotional contagion (see " Test for emotional contagion" section).
Before testing for emotional contagion on test day 26, the four pen mates of each pair of training pigs were habituated to the test room and to the piano music and military march (i.e., the CSs), but were not given access to the treatments.
On the last two test days of this week (test days 32 and 33), the effect of oxytocin on emotional contagion was tested.
Alternatively put, screening can only prevent an outbreak of contagion where an effective test for a known disease agent has been developed and incorporated into routine surveillance procedures.
In the week after test day 26 (a Friday), the test for emotional contagion was repeated, but this time the naive pen mates received a dose of oxytocin 30 min before they were brought to the test room together with the training pigs.
The experiment tested whether emotional contagion occurs between individuals on Facebook, a question the authors (a Facebook scientist and two academics) tested by using an automated system to reduce the amount of emotional content in Facebook news feeds.
In a recent study, Todd Thrash and colleagues conducted the first ever test of "inspiration contagion," using poetry as the vehicle.
This allowed testing for emotional contagion.
