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.     

A longitudinal study on the relationship between adolescents’ medical drama viewing and speeding

The present study aimed to examine whether watching medical drama had a long-term protective effect on speeding behavior. Specifically, this research examined the extent to which medical drama viewing in adolescence predicts risk perceptions, crash fear, speeding attitudes and self-reported speeding behavior in early adulthood. Using a longitudinal research method, 487 adolescents (M_age = 17.7 at baseline) who responded to an earlier survey were re-interviewed five years later. Structural equation modeling indicated that more medical drama viewing at baseline was associated with increased risk perception and higher driving-related fear five years later. The fear of being involved in a traffic crash appeared to be associated with less favorable attitudes toward speeding. Furthermore, in line with the expectations, these speeding attitudes were a significant predictor of self-reported speeding behavior. These results help to provide a better understanding of the relationship between media use and subsequent risk-taking, and have implications for prevention efforts.     

Empathy and the responsiveness to social affordances

The direct perception theory of empathy claims that we can immediately experience a person’s state of mind. I can see for instance that my neighbour is angry with me in his bodily countenance. I develop a version of the direct perception theory of empathy which takes this perceptual capacity to depend upon recognising in what way the other person is responsive to the affordances the environment provides. By recognising which possibilities for action are relevant to a person, I can thereby understand something about the meaning they give to the world. I come to share something of their perspective on the world, and this allows me to grasp based on my perception of them something about their current state of mind. I argue that shared affect plays a central role in this perceptual capacity. Shared affect allows me to orient my attention to possibilities for action that matter to the other person. I end by briefly discuss the implications of this view of empathy for the disturbances in so-called “cognitive empathy” that are found in people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.