Social Sharing of Emotion: New Evidence and New Questions

Abstract

Rimé et al. (1992) showed that most emotional experiences are shared with others shortly after they occurred. They proposed that social sharing represents an integral part of emotional experiences. The present chapter examines the generalizability of the phenomenon across various research procedures that overcome the limits of previous studies. Existing findings are extended to children and older populations, and individual and cultural differences are considered. Furthermore, the role of the intensity of the emotion and its relation with extent of social sharing is investigated. The chapter then addresses the contribution of social sharing to emotional recovery. Given that findings were generally not consistent with the view that sharing alleviates the memory of the shared emotional experience, the chapter discusses alternative potential effects and functions of social sharing.