Emotion beyond boundaries: How multimodal cues foster cross-cultural affective contagion in immersive livestreaming

RESEARCH ARTICLE Emotion beyond boundaries: How multimodal cues foster cross-cultural affective contagion in immersive livestreaming Yu Zhang 1 , Yuanyuan Liu , Haoran Mao 1 *, Junxiang Zhao2 1 1 School of Foreign Studies, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong, China, 2 Department of Social and Ecological Civilization Studies, Shandong Administration Institute, Jinan, Shandong, China * Abstract OPEN ACCESS Citation: Zhang Y, Liu Y, Mao H, Zhao J (2026) Emotion beyond boundaries: How multimodal cues foster cross-cultural affective contagion in immersive livestreaming. PLoS One 21(5): e0349436. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0349436 Editor: Ciro Clemente De Falco, University of Naples Federico II: Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, ITALY Received: November 28, 2025 Accepted: April 30, 2026 Published: May 28, 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data availability statement: All relevant data are contained within the Supporting Information files and can be accessed from https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.16654.22082. Funding: This study was supported by Innovation fund project for graduate student of Digital and intelligent media technologies are fundamentally reshaping the landscape of international communication. This study examines the multimodal emotional communication mechanisms and efficacy of immersive live streaming through a case analysis of American influencer IShowSpeed’s “China tour” broadcasts on Bilibili. Using network analysis to map user interactions, sentiment analysis to measure emotional responses, and epidemiological modeling to track emotion spread, this study investigates how emotions operate and spread in cross-cultural digital environments. Our findings reveal three interconnected mechanisms: (1) algorithm-driven decentralized network structures that facilitate rapid information diffusion, (2) multimodal sensory cues triggering high-arousal positive emotions, and (3) emotion-similarity-based multilevel contagion pathways enabling cascading effects. These mechanisms collectively constitute a nonlinear, affect-first communication paradigm that effectively orchestrates immersive experiences and emotional resonance across cultural boundaries, generating positive cascading effects among diverse audiences. This research contributes to the theorization of digital international communication by proposing an exploratory “algorithm-infrastructure, emotion-pathway, identification-outcome” framework derived from a single-case mechanism analysis, and by offering empirical insight into how cross-cultural engagement is shaped through the interaction of affective communication and platform dynamics. Introduction The proliferation of digital and intelligent media technologies has inaugurated a new paradigm in international communication characterized by platformization and algorithmization. Unlike traditional media’s unidirectional, linear broadcasting model, intelligent social platforms leverage real-time interactivity, algorithmic recommendation systems, and participatory architectures to fundamentally reconfigure communication PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0349436 May 28, 2026 1 / 28 China University of Petroleum (East China) supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”(26CX04046A). The funding was awarded to Y.Z. (Yu Zhang). Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. ecologies and expand possibilities for cross-cultural engagement [1]. Within this evolving landscape, influencer-driven live streaming has emerged as a paradigmatic digital-native communication format, distinguished by immersive experiential qualities, algorithmic content curation, and potent affective contagion dynamics. The case of American top-tier influencer IShowSpeed (Darren Watkins Jr.) provides a compelling empirical context. Between March 24 and April 3, 2025, his “China Tour” live streaming series documented immersive cultural experiences across eight Chinese cities—including iconic activities such as climbing the Great Wall, practicing martial arts at Shaolin Temple, and sampling regional cuisines (like Dou Zhi, hot pot). Through first-person perspective broadcasting, the series generated substantial digital engagement with individual episodes exceeding 5 million views. The communicative impact garnered institutional recognition, with the Chinese Embassy in the United States acknowledging the streams’ capacity to “bridge cultural divides and create novel channels for global audiences to engage with authentic China.” Despite growing scholarly attention to international communication and national image construction, existing research predominantly focuses on traditional media frameworks or official discourse analyses. The intrinsic communication mechanisms and efficacy of algorithm-driven, multimodal, affect-centered influencer live streaming remain under-explored through systematic empirical investigation. This study addresses this gap by examining IShowSpeed’s China tour as a case study and investigating how immersive live streaming mobilizes multimodal emotional communication to facilitate cross-cultural identification in a specific platform-mediated context, thereby offering a mechanism-oriented account of international communication in the digital-intelligent era. Literature review Immersive communication as a cross-cultural interface Research on immersive communication provides critical conceptual foundations for understanding how streamers such as IShowSpeed cultivate emotionally resonant environments for global audiences. At the modality level, social presence research highlights interactivity, the availability of multimodal nonverbal cues, and the perceived immediacy and authenticity of communication [2]. These modalities, when embedded in real-time live streaming, foster a vivid sense of co-presence. Empirical evidence based on survey data from 515 Chinese users further suggests that higher levels of perceived network social presence significantly enhance viewers’ willingness to extend emotional social support [3]. At the content level, the focus of cross-cultural communication has shifted from solely transmitting informational content to addressing users’ experiential demands in the era of digital intelligence. Scholars argue that emotional resonance, contextualized storytelling, and participatory interaction reduce cultural distance and strengthen users’ immersion within digital environments [4]. In this study, emotional resonance refers to a process through which viewers move beyond cognitive understanding and experience affective alignment with the streamer, the place, or other viewers through synchroni (...truncated)