It Takes Two, Co-Ruminate: An Examination of Co-Rumination as a Dyadic Soc Emotion Regulation Strat

Peters' interdisciplinary, multi-method program of research seeks to understand psychological, cognitive, and physiological processes in relationship contexts. He examines how responses to social stressors, both internal and external to the relationship, influence online physiological and affective responses, and downstream decisions, behaviors and health outcomes.

This presentation focuses on how Co-rumination is a social emotion regulation strategy characterized by extensive and exhaustive discussions of stressors and negative emotions with another person. Typically, greater co-rumination is associated with more intrapersonal costs (e.g., negative affect) and interpersonal benefits (e.g., closeness), indicative of what is known as the “trade-off hypothesis.” While research establishing the costs and benefits associated with co-rumination has been formative, Peter’s and his team's understanding of co-rumination can be enhanced by embracing its dyadic and social nature.

Through a social psychological lens, the team paves a way forward by offering a new theoretical conceptualization with which to view co-rumination that emphasizes the need to explicitly examine the dyadic and social nature of co-rumination and to reconsider what are “costs” and “benefits” of co-rumination based on the social context in which it is embedded.

This talk was given on September 22nd, 2025, as part of the Group Dynamics Seminar series, considered one of the longest-running seminar series in the social sciences. It has been running uninterruptedly since it was founded by Kurt Lewin in the 1920s in Berlin.

Since its establishment in 1948, the Research Center for Group Dynamics’ mission has been to advance the understanding of human behavior in social contexts. Learn more about RCGD and its interdisciplinary Group Dynamics Seminars.