Women communicating autobiographical memories of gender bias can help redress injustices on individual and societal levels. When sharing these stories, women may have different goals which impact features of the memory recall, resulting narrative, and consequently, the audience. Across four studies, we examine mental visual imagery perspective in autobiographical memories (first-person, images from one’s own viewpoint vs third-person, images from an observer viewpoint) as a socio-cognitive tool women can use to shape their narratives to communicate their own experience and the broader meaning. We assess how women use perspective naturally, the outcomes on an audience, and intuitions about perspective usefulness.

Emotion seems to foster vivid and persistent memories, though the details we remember change over time. This talk will explore how social sharing of memories from one’s personal past predicts the malleability of emotional memory. First, I will examine how social sharing differs between negative and neutral memories. Next, I present evidence to suggest that memory sharing has differential influences on memory malleability, depending on the audience the event is being retold to. I conclude by discussing the benefits and pitfalls of co-remembering through the lens of memory malleability.

Social support facilitates coping with stressful events, but people do not always get the support that they need. Research has primarily focused on the role of support-providers, overlooking how support-recipients shape these interactions. We present a study examining how the way people talk about emotional events influences support outcomes. Using experimental vignettes, we examine how variations in the motivational, affective, and structural elements of narratives influences the quantity and type of support that people provide. We find that negative, helpless narratives elicited the most support. People varied the type of support provided depending on the valence and coherence of narratives.

LGBTQ+ intergenerational connection is rare and, as a result, LGBTQ+ people from different generations have little access to each other’s stories—wisdom-rich stories necessary for surviving and thriving in a marginalizing society. This talk summarizes empirical insights from three efforts to heal the LGBTQ+ generational divide through storytelling. The studies leverage multiple methods, including an innovative letter-writing paradigm, close observations of intergenerational dyadic storytelling exchanges, and a multi-year community-engaged ethnographic experiment. This research suggests several ways to optimize the sharing of vicarious memories through storytelling, in turn, benefitting the psychosocial, cultural, and educational well-being of LGBTQ+ younger and older adults.