When more is not merrier: shared stressful experiences amplify

ABSTRACT

Sharing experiences with others, even without communication, can amplify those experiences. We investigated whether shared stressful experiences amplify. Participants completed the Cold Pressor Task at the same time as a confederate, or while the confederate completed another task. Importantly, participants in the shared (vs. unshared) condition experienced more sensory pain characteristics and reported more stress over time in relation to the task. Importantly, they reported thinking more about the confederate’s thoughts and feelings. This mentalizing sometimes mediated effects, suggesting the task amplified when participants constructed mental representations of others’ CPT experience (e.g. that it hurts) and incorporated it into their own responses.

KEYWORDS:

• Shared experience
• shared amplification
• memory amplification
• social influences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 There were also two experimenters. Each confederate/experimenter pair ran 10–13 participants in each condition.

2 One person did not complete the baseline PANAS.