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Shared attention helps drive the excitement of massive events, such as the recently concluded football World Cup, says a new study, which is based on a collaborative effort with researchers from the University of Toronto, University of Tennessee, MIT, Columbia University, and Northwestern University.
"Watching an event together with a group has a powerful impact on the way we process information," says Garriy Shteynberg, the study's lead author. "We tend to pay more attention and feel the experience more deeply, leading it to have a more lasting impact on us."
Researchers found that watching an event simultaneously with a group produced stronger emotional reactions than when watching the same event alone, or watching it even a minute apart. Do other people need to be physically present for this effect to work? Not necessarily.
The study says simply knowing that other people are watching the same event can have the same impact, even if they are not physically next to you. Even when watching the latest match on your own, the emotional impact will be stronger when you think about the fact that so many other people are watching it at the same time with you. The effect of shared attention, however, is only present when you are watching at the same time as others.
