The Amplification Effect Of Group Emotions:the Appraisal-verification-amplification Model

Massive experiences showed that co-experiencing emotional events with others could amplify emotional feelings compared to experiencing the same emotional events in solitude.This phenomenon has also been examined by a series of previous studies.How did this effect of emotion amplification happen? The mechanism of this amplification effect still needs further examined.Previous researchers suggested the theories of emotional contagion and group co-attention,however both of them had not enough power to explain it well.The present study proposed an alternative model to predict and explain the amplification effect of group emotions,that is,appraisal-verification-amplification model,which was built on the theories of social appraisal and shared reality.Comparing with experiencing an emotional event in solitude,individuals experienced the same emotional events in group condition with other members would also refer to,or compare with other members’ emotions spontaneously,in addition to themselves producing a preparing state of emotion or a reactive orientation.When they appraised that their emotions were the same with others’,they then obtained the social verification and gained cognitive support,at last their emotion they expressed would be amplified.Conversely,when they appraised that their emotions were different with others’,which means that their emotions couldn’t gain social verification,the individuals would question the rationality of their emotions,inhibiting the expression of emotions,at last their emotions would not be amplified,even causing the emotions subsided.The present study aimed to examine the model of “appraisal-verification-amplification” with the emotional contagion being controlled for,at the same time testing the theory of group co-attention.The Study 1 examined the difference degree of emotions individuals felt in group condition and solitude condition under reality situation,choosing a history event as the emotion stimulus,which could arouse varies kinds of emotions.The results showed no significance differences of all emotions between group condition and solitude condition.We suggested it might be because that the individuals rarely communicated with others in the group condition,which lead the lacking of explicit clues to appraise others’ emotions,so it was hard to achieve the process of emotion verification.In Study 2,we made some improvements.(1)We examined the amplification effect of group emotions in virtual Internet situation,and the appraisal-verification-amplification model was also tested.There were two aspects considerations about studying in Internet situation: Firstly,the effect of emotional contagion could be controlled for well.Secondly,it met with the development of modern society,which because that more and more people were active in virtual communities or groups.(2)The theory of group co-attention was also examined.The results should that just the verified emotion had been amplified when individuals co-experience emotion with others in group condition,comparing with solitude condition,which means that the group emotion amplification effect happened.There were no differences when the emotion had not been verified;and the theories of emotional contagion and group co-attention could not enough to explain the amplification effect of group emotions.