Happy Together and Sad Together: Impact of Emotional Similarity on Task Motivation in Groups

Objective: The present study investigated the impact of emotional similarity (vs. dissimilarity) on group members’ task motivation. Although previous research has consistently shown that shared positive emotion (i.e., happiness) promotes group functioning, the role of shared negative emotion (i.e., sadness) in task groups is less clear. Method: We conducted a laboratory experiment in which 48 dyadic teams of undergraduates performed a group problem-solving task. Prior to group interaction, we induced different emotions to create four conditions of affective composition (n = 12): shared positive (happy–happy), shared negative (sad–sad), emotional dissimilarity (happy–sad), and control (neutral–neutral). We measured persistence in the group task as a dependent variable. Results: Results indicated that the two conditions of emotional similarity (happy–happy vs. sad–sad) did not differ from each other. Further, teams persisted longer in the two similarity conditions (combined) than in the emotional dissimilarity and the control conditions. We also found evidence that emotional similarity, be it positive or negative, promoted liking between team members. Conclusions: The present study suggests that it is the similarity in members’ emotional states that has a motivating impact on task groups. It also suggests that interpersonal attraction can be driven by shared negative as well as positive emotions.