EXPRESS: Individual- and Group-Level Consequences of Divergence in Perceived Group Affect

The shared mood or affect of a work group can exert a powerful influence on the group’s social dynamics and effectiveness. However, the mood of others can be difficult to read, leading to divergent perceptions of group affect among members. What happens when individuals perceive the group’s affect differently? We answer this question by investigating how divergence in perceptions of group affect influences individuals’ social integration and the group’s performance. In doing so, we examine the implications of divergence in perceived group affect for individuals and the group as a whole. In a field study of 1,419 individuals in 107 work groups, we found that divergence in perceptions of the group’s positive affect was negatively associated with individuals’ commitment to the team and undermined the positive impact of group affect on group performance. We discuss the implications of our findings for refining theory on group affect, the value of strongly shared affect, and how leaders can foster a stronger sense of shared affect within groups.

The forms and functions of “Breaking into song” during in-group conversations

This article adopts an interactional sociolinguistic perspective to investigate the forms and functions of breaking into song in in-group interaction. The data are approximately two hours of interaction among three sisters in their home, during which the sisters occasionally sing together or make references to songs they know. I examine how singing in interaction promotes affiliation and solidarity between participants. In terms of form, the turn-by turn format of instances of singing is investigated, and evidence is presented to argue that joint singing constitutes a speech activity. In terms of function, it is argued that joint singing is a site of shared affect. Singing also makes participants’ relationship with one another relevant in the interaction at hand by indexing the familiarity dimension of that relationship. These affordances of singing allow it to become a resource at moments of trouble to restore affiliation.

Laurence Sterne in the Romantic Anthology

This chapter describes the fictional forms by which Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey present confrontations between characters separated by differences of ethnicity, race, and species, particularly in episodes that were frequently republished in popular anthologies. Around the turn of the nineteenth century, readers encountered a version of Sterne’s sentimental fiction that is incompatible with a critical consensus about his novels. While Sterne has been understood to base subject-formation on the appropriation of another’s sentiments through the experience of sympathy, popular anthologized forms of his works, by contrast, emphasize emotional disturbance and preclude the return to a stable, narrating self. Anthologized versions of Sterne mobilize aspects of his original works—the structure of the frame tale, an interest in giving voice to figures of radical difference (including animals and former slaves), and the experience of shared affect and narrative—and specify Romantic-era fiction’s revision of sympathy.

Neural and Physiological Mechanisms of Altruism and Empathy

Empathy and altruism are both “prosocial emotions.” They are most often discussed together under the rubric of “empathy-based altruism” theories, which allow for a truly other-oriented and selfless motivation to give. In addition, most integrative theories of empathy-based altruism assume that this prosocial motivation evolved from the need for altricial mammals to care for helpless offspring, which was extended in evolutionary history to group members and even strangers. This view is widespread and empirically supported. However, there are many times when empathy does not produce altruism and when altruism does not derive from shared affect; there are also prosocial phenomena that are overlooked and distorted by oversimplifications of the empathy-altruism hypothesis. The current chapter reviews empathy and altruism, including definitional issues, distinct features in empathy versus altruism, the neural and physiological mechanisms behind empathy and altruism, and how the two interact during a typical prosocial act, focusing on points of contention or confusion in the literature.