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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 23, 2026

Dissociation of the Confounding Influences of Expectancy and Integrative Difficulty Residing in Anomalous Sentences in Event-related Potential Studies

Dissociation of the Confounding Influences of Expectancy and Integrative Difficulty Residing in Anomalous Sentences in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: May 9, 2019

Shared experiences are amplified.

Erica J Boothby¹, Margaret S Clark², John A Bargh²

¹Yale University erica.boothby@yale.edu.

Psychological Science

|October 3, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Sharing an experience with another person amplifies its intensity. Both pleasant and unpleasant experiences become more extreme when shared, supporting the amplification hypothesis.

Keywords:

attention mentalizing shared experience social influence

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Area of Science:

Social Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Human Experience

Background:

The impact of social presence on individual experience is a key area of psychological research.
Previous findings suggest shared activities can influence perception, but the specific mechanism of amplification requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether sharing an experience, without communication, amplifies the intensity of both pleasant and unpleasant subjective experiences.
To differentiate between the amplification hypothesis and the general enjoyment hypothesis of shared experiences.

Main Methods:

Two studies were conducted involving participants tasting chocolate under conditions of shared experience versus parallel activity.
Study 1 involved tasting pleasant chocolate, while Study 2 used unpleasantly bitter chocolate.
Participants rated the likability and intensity of their experience in each condition.

Main Results:

In Study 1, pleasant chocolate was rated as more likeable when tasted simultaneously with another person.
In Study 2, unpleasant chocolate was rated as less likeable when tasted simultaneously with another person.
These findings indicate that shared experiences intensify, rather than simply increase enjoyment.

Conclusions:

The presence of another person, even without communication, amplifies the intensity of subjective experiences.
The amplification effect applies to both positive and negative experiences, supporting the amplification hypothesis.
This research provides evidence for a fundamental mechanism influencing human social perception and experience.