Shared experiences and prosocial responding: the roles of self-other overlap and perceived emotional synchrony.
5 affiliations
- 1Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
- 2Department of Psychology, School of Public Policy and Management, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China.
- 3Faculty of Business and Management Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University Zhuhai, Zhuhai, China.
- 4Bay Area School of Applied Psychological Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, Zhuhai, China.
- 5Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Abstract
Social isolation and difficulties in self-related processing have been linked to a range of psychological challenges. While shared experiences (from collective grief to celebratory events) are known to strengthen social bonds, the mechanisms through which they may beneficially influence self-related cognition and promote prosocial responding remain underexplored. This study investigates perceived emotional synchrony (PES)-the subjective sense of emotional convergence with others during collective events-as a key socioemotional process linking shared experiences to prosocial responding and shaped by self-other overlap (SOO), a core indicator of relational-cognitive connection between the self and others. Across four progressive studies involving both positive and negative emotional contexts, we investigated how shared experiences related to changes in self-perception and subsequent prosocial responding (as an indicator of social function). The results indicated that: (1) sharing an emotional event was associated with greater prosocial responding than individual experience across both positive and negative contexts; (2) in negative emotional contexts, SOO may function as an upstream relational-cognitive state associated with higher levels of perceived emotional synchrony; (3) this cognitive-affective pathway partially accounted for the prosocial effects of shared negative experience. Additional analyses were more consistent with the proposed serial model in which SOO preceded PES than with the reversed serial model. Together, these findings provide a refined account of how shared experiences may promote prosocial responding through cognitive-affective processes that shape the relationship between the self and others.
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BibTeX
@article{xue2026shared,
title = {{Shared experiences and prosocial responding: the roles of self-other overlap and perceived emotional synchrony.}},
author = {Xiaodi Xue and Junkai Ye and Yueying Lee and Song Tong and Kaiping Peng},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1763805},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42908628},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Shared experiences and prosocial responding: the roles of self-other overlap and perceived emotional synchrony.
AU - Xiaodi Xue
AU - Junkai Ye
AU - Yueying Lee
AU - Song Tong
AU - Kaiping Peng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
JO - Frontiers in psychology
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1763805
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42908628
AB - Social isolation and difficulties in self-related processing have been linked to a range of psychological challenges. While shared experiences (from collective grief to celebratory events) are known to strengthen social bonds, the mechanisms through which they may beneficially influence self-related cognition and promote prosocial responding remain underexplored. This study investigates perceived emotional synchrony (PES)-the subjective sense of emotional convergence with others during collective events-as a key socioemotional process linking shared experiences to prosocial responding and shaped by self-other overlap (SOO), a core indicator of relational-cognitive connection between the self and others. Across four progressive studies involving both positive and negative emotional contexts, we investigated how shared experiences related to changes in self-perception and subsequent prosocial responding (as an indicator of social function). The results indicated that: (1) sharing an emotional event was associated with greater prosocial responding than individual experience across both positive and negative contexts; (2) in negative emotional contexts, SOO may function as an upstream relational-cognitive state associated with higher levels of perceived emotional synchrony; (3) this cognitive-affective pathway partially accounted for the prosocial effects of shared negative experience. Additional analyses were more consistent with the proposed serial model in which SOO preceded PES than with the reversed serial model. Together, these findings provide a refined account of how shared experiences may promote prosocial responding through cognitive-affective processes that shape the relationship between the self and others.
SN - 1664-1078
ER -