Objective: To explore how social sharing of relational emotions affects interpersonal relationships.
Methods: A between-subjects design of 2 (social sharing of relational emotions: present vs absent) × 2 (gender: male vs female) was adopted. Sixty-three participants were recruited to engage in a dyadic interaction task, with a same-gender experimental confederate. All the participants were randomly assigned to experimental group (n=32) and control group (n=31).All participants shared their positive emotional events over the past year with a ‘companion' (played by an experimental confederate), with the experimental group additionally sharing relationship-related positive emotions. After the conversation, participants reported their emotions (positive/negative), conversation evaluation, and interaction evaluation (including interpersonal distance, interpersonal liking, and sense of resonance).
Results: Compared to the control group, the experimental group had a higher evaluation of the conversation (F = 11.542, p = 0.001, η2p = 0.159), experienced more positive emotions (F = 5.340, p = 0.024, η2p = 0.080), while no significant group differences were found for negative emotions, interpersonal distance or interpersonal liking. Additionally, female participants in the experimental group felt significantly more in tune with their partner than those in the control group, (F(1, 59) = 9.263, p = 0.003), while no significant difference was observed among male participants (F(1, 59)= 0.319, p = 0.574).
Conclusion: During relationship development stage, sharing positive relational emotions can promote positive affect and interpersonal evaluations. Social sharing of relational emotion may have a unique beneficial role in building interpersonal interactions.
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