Cognitive and Emotional Processes Involved in Co-Viewing: A Naturalistic Comparison With Solo Viewers

Video co-viewing is a central part of everyday media use, yet little is known about the cognitive and emotional processes involved in co-viewing. To facilitate theoretical development in understanding message processing in social contexts, this study theorizes four interpersonal factors that shape co-viewers’ psychological processes. As a first step toward this broader theoretical goal, we focused on interaction-free moments (i.e., silent with eyes fixed on the television) during co-viewing and investigated co-viewers’ cognitive and emotional processes by comparing them with solo viewers, within a naturalistic context where conversation is allowed. Compared to solo viewers, co-viewers exhibited (1) more positive and less negative emotions, (2) heightened physiological arousal though not significantly so, and (3) higher levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Co-viewers’ higher RSA support the proposed social vigilance effect where the presence of a viewing partner triggers self-regulation processes as co-viewers monitor and anticipate potential interactions during naturalistic co-viewing.