Abstract:

Sharing emotional events with group members amplifies each individual’s emotional experience compared to experiencing the same emotional events as an individual. This increase is termed the amplification effect of group-shared emotion. Considerable experimental evidence supports this concept. Different underlying mechanisms for this effect, e.g., group co-attention and emotional contagion, have been proposed. Building on the theories of social appraisal and shared reality, we proposed that the amplification effect of group-shared emotion occurs via an appraisal-verification-amplification process model. Previous research on the amplification effect primarily focused on dyads, and the emotions were even experienced in artificial situations. Hence, further research should examine the amplification effect in real group situations. More research is also need to examine the appraisal-verification-amplification process model.

Key words: shared experience, emotion appraisal, verification, shared reality