title: Feeling more together: group attention intensifies emotion.
abstract: The idea that group contexts can intensify emotions is centuries old. Yet, evidence that speaks to how, or if, emotions become more intense in groups remains elusive. Here we examine the novel possibility that group attention--the experience of simultaneous coattention with one's group members--increases emotional intensity relative to attending alone, coattending with strangers, or attending nonsimultaneously with one's group members. In Study 1, scary advertisements felt scarier under group attention. In Study 2, group attention intensified feelings of sadness to negative images, and feelings of happiness to positive images. In Study 3, group attention during a video depicting homelessness led to greater sadness that prompted larger donations to charities benefiting the homeless. In Studies 4 and 5, group attention increased the amount of cognitive resources allocated toward sad and amusing videos (as indexed by the percentage of thoughts referencing video content), leading to more sadness and happiness, respectively. In all, these effects could not be explained by differences in physiological arousal, emotional contagion, or vicarious emotional experience. Greater fear, gloom, and glee can thus result from group attention to scary, sad, and happy events, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee.
authors.forename: Garriy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shteynberg
authors.affiliation: Institute of Management and Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga.
authors.forename: Jacob B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Hirsh
authors.affiliation: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
authors.forename: Evan P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Apfelbaum
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee.
authors.forename: Jeff T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: Columbia Business School, Columbia University.
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Galinsky
authors.affiliation: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
authors.forename: Neal J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Roese
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult