Effects of Social Disclosure

The intensity of negative emotions associated with event memories fades to a greater extent over time than positive emotions (Fading Affect Bias or FAB). In this study, we examine how the presence and behaviour of a listener during social disclosure influences the FAB and the linguistic characteristics of event narratives. Participants recalled pleasant and unpleasant events and rated each event for its emotional intensity. Recalled events were then allocated to one of three experimental conditions: no disclosure, private verbal disclosure without a listener, or social disclosure to another participant whose behaviour was experimentally manipulated. Participants again rated the emotional intensity of the events immediately after these manipulations and after a one week delay. Verbal disclosure alone was not sufficient to enhance the FAB. However, social disclosure increased positive emotional intensity, regardless of the behaviour of the listener. Whilst talking to an interactive listener led unpleasant event memories to decrease in emotional intensity, talking to a non-responsive listener increased their negative emotional intensity. Further, listener behaviour influenced the extent of emotional expression in written event narratives. This study provides original evidence that listener behaviour during social disclosure is an important factor in the effects of social disclosure in the FAB. 3 The intensity of negative emotions associated with everyday unpleasant events often fades in memory, whilst positive emotions associated with everyday pleasant events remain relatively constant over time. This phenomenon is known as the fading affect bias or FAB (Walker, Skowronski & Thompson, 2003). The FAB is observed when participants rate the intensity of emotion felt at an event's occurrence compared to what they feel upon event recall. In most cases, the drop in emotional intensity is larger for unpleasant events than for pleasant. The fading affect bias is apparent as soon as 36 hours after events occur, and in some cases present after only 12 hours (Gibbons, Lee & Walker, 2011). The FAB has been observed after retention intervals of three months, one year, and four and a half years (Walker, Vogl & Thompson, 1997). The FAB is a robust phenomenon and survives attempts to explain it as a methodological artefact. It appears regardless of whether a daily diary or retrospective recall method is used to obtain event memories and emotional intensity ratings (Ritchie, Skowronski, Hartnett et al., 2009; Walker et al., 1997). The FAB also appears irrespective of whether a between-or within-participants design is used, and regardless of whether …