The purpose of the set of studies here reported was to increase our understanding of how and why people share with others their emotional experience. As our experience and some recent studies (Rimé, 1994) tell us, we do share our emotional experiences, especially with close others such as one’s own partner, friends, family members, or the like. But do we really communicate emotional experiences as we had them, or do we ‘select’ what to communicate to others, ‘leaving out’ some emotions we felt, ‘putting in’ some others we didn’t feel, emphasizing some, attenuating others, and so forth? The hypothesis is that discrepancies between felt and verbally communicated emotions occur, and are due to motives that involve the expected inter/personal consequences of social sharing of emotions, such as social rejection or support, or receiving comfort or advice. 854 Subjects (408 men and 446 women, young and mature, adults) answered a questionnaire.that described a jealousy (kiss or a flirt) event and answered several questions about them, including an open question on emotion sharing. Content analyses of answers confirmed the hypotheses and showed that 3 factors accounted for sharing: 1. Attribution: when making prototypical attributions, people assumed that sharing is due to the desire to get advice or comfort, and to relieve feelings, more than when making self-attributions; for the latter, sincerity, the unexpectedness of the event, and one’s own fears about the future of the relationship (which was also more salient for older subjects, and for the kiss) were more salient motives. 2. Antecedent, and 3. Age: extenuating the event’s seriousness was a motive that mainly characterized sharing by the younger people, and about the flirt; letting the interlocutor know one’s own disappointment, and feelings of having been betrayed and hurt, characterized more older subjects, and sharing the experience elicited by the kiss.

Discrepancies between felt and communicated emotions

ZAMMUNER, VANDA
1994

Abstract

The purpose of the set of studies here reported was to increase our understanding of how and why people share with others their emotional experience. As our experience and some recent studies (Rimé, 1994) tell us, we do share our emotional experiences, especially with close others such as one’s own partner, friends, family members, or the like. But do we really communicate emotional experiences as we had them, or do we ‘select’ what to communicate to others, ‘leaving out’ some emotions we felt, ‘putting in’ some others we didn’t feel, emphasizing some, attenuating others, and so forth? The hypothesis is that discrepancies between felt and verbally communicated emotions occur, and are due to motives that involve the expected inter/personal consequences of social sharing of emotions, such as social rejection or support, or receiving comfort or advice. 854 Subjects (408 men and 446 women, young and mature, adults) answered a questionnaire.that described a jealousy (kiss or a flirt) event and answered several questions about them, including an open question on emotion sharing. Content analyses of answers confirmed the hypotheses and showed that 3 factors accounted for sharing: 1. Attribution: when making prototypical attributions, people assumed that sharing is due to the desire to get advice or comfort, and to relieve feelings, more than when making self-attributions; for the latter, sincerity, the unexpectedness of the event, and one’s own fears about the future of the relationship (which was also more salient for older subjects, and for the kiss) were more salient motives. 2. Antecedent, and 3. Age: extenuating the event’s seriousness was a motive that mainly characterized sharing by the younger people, and about the flirt; letting the interlocutor know one’s own disappointment, and feelings of having been betrayed and hurt, characterized more older subjects, and sharing the experience elicited by the kiss.
1994
Proceedings of the VIII Conference of the International Society for Research on Emotion
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11577/173707
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