Social sharing of emotion following exposure to a negatively valenced situation

Three experimental studies are reported in which we tested the prediction that negative emotion elicits the social sharing of the emotional experience. In two experiments, participants arrived at the laboratory with a friend and then viewed one of three film excerpts (nonemotional, moderate emotion, or intense emotion) alone. Afterwards, the participants who saw the film had an opportunity to interact with the friend and their conversation was recorded. In both experiments participants who had seen the intense emotion excerpt engaged in significantly more social sharing than did participants in the other two conditions. A third experiment extended the investigation to social sharing in everyday life and replicated the previous results. Nonemotional explanations of the effects observed were also ruled out. Results are discussed in the context of the relation between emotional intensity and amount of social sharing.     

Towards a Theory of Criminal Law?

After an initial discussion (§ i ) of what a theory of criminal law might amount to, I sketch (§ ii ) the proper aims of a liberal, republican criminal law, and discuss (§§ iii – iv ) two central features of such a criminal law: that it deals with public wrongs, and provides for those who perpetrate such wrongs to be called to public account. § v explains why a liberal republic should maintain such a system of criminal law, and § vi tackles the issue of criminalization—of how we should determine the proper scope of the criminal law.