Celebrating the Accomplishments of Others

Abstract

Capitalization, sharing positive personal information in a relationship, has gained considerable attention for benefitting the discloser of positive information. However, this study is the first to examine the effects of capitalization on the listener who celebrates the news, the celebrator. Thirty-nine college students participated in a daily diary capitalization intervention for 4 weeks in which every other week they celebrated capitalization. In diaries, participants reported experiencing more positive emotions when celebrating than when not celebrating. The discloser’s positive reaction to the celebration mediated the relationship between the number of celebrations and the celebrator’s higher positive emotions. In addition, more celebrations per day and feeling more authentic during celebrations predicted higher positive emotions. However, the perceived closeness of the relationship between the discloser and the celebrator was not associated with the effect of celebrating. Implications for the use of capitalization in different contexts and relationships are discussed.