Joy, Pride, Envy, Jealousy, and Sadness: are they 'sincerely' shared?"

The paper will present results obtained in five parallel studies of the emotion-constellations of Jealousy, Pride, Sadness, Joy and Envy. Five independent samples of Italian men and women (N total = 1.156) answered a questionnaire that presented a typical constellation antecedent as a personal narrative, in a story format ---e.g. for Envy, a colleague of the story protagonist P, less capable than P, is promoted to a higher position. Subjects were asked to answer a few (both open and closed) questions about which emotions the protagonist P was likely to feel with respect to the described event, and which ones P was likely to share with someone else (e.g., partner, friend, rival), and why. The analysis of subjects' emotion attributions showed that a discrepancy between felt and verbally shared emotions is the norm rather than the exception: felt emotions that have (social or personal) negative implications will be 'toned down' or not shared at all, whereas those that are normative or carry positive implications will be shared. Subjects' explanations indicated that sharing behaviours are most often strategically oriented: the sharing person tries to convey a positive self-image, to conform to emotional standards, to steer the interpersonal relationship with the sharing partner in the desidered direction, and so forth. In general, there were not many significant differences in the sharing behaviors associated with the different constellation types; the key factor was instead the normative status of the emotions comprised in each constellation in relation to the specific event that elicited them.