Emotional Experience as a Function of Social Context: The Role of the Other

Inconsistencies in previous findings concerning the relationship between emotion and social context are likely to reflect the multi-dimensionality of the sociality construct. In the present study we focused on the role of the other person by manipulating two aspects of this role: co-experience of the event and expression of emotion. We predicted that another's co-experience and expression would affect emotional responses and that the direction of these effects would depend upon the manipulated emotion and how the role of the other person is appraised. Participants read vignettes eliciting four different emotions: happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger. As well as an alone condition, there were four conditions in which a friend was present, either co-experiencing the event or merely observing it, and either expressing emotions consistent with the event or not showing any emotion. There were significant effects of co-experience in the case of anger situations, and of expression in the case of happiness and sadness situations. Social appraisal also appeared to influence emotional response. We discuss different processes that might be responsible for these results.