Sharing extraordinary moments with others may come at a big social cost, a new study finds.

As much as we like to reminisce and talk about our wonderful experiences in the past, researchers of a new study found that such acts may have negative social consequences in the long run.

"Extraordinary experiences are pleasurable in the moment but can leave us socially worse off in the long run," said psychological scientist and study author Gus Cooney of Harvard University, in a press statement. "The participants in our study mistakenly thought that having an extraordinary experience would make them the star of the conversation. But they were wrong, because to be extraordinary is to be different than other people, and social interaction is grounded in similarities."

"We all appreciate experiences that are fine and rare, and when we get what we want, we're always eager to tell our friends. But I've noticed that conversations always seem to thrive on more ordinary topics," Cooney explained. "This made me wonder if there might be times when extraordinary experiences have more costs than benefits, and whether people know what those times are."

For the study, the researchers examined 68 participants who were divided into groups of four. One participant in each group was made to watch a highly-rated "4-star" video of a street magician performing for a crowd, while the other three participants were assigned to watch a lower-rated "2-star" animated video, and they were all aware of each other's video assignments. After watching the videos, the participants sat around a table and had a 5-minute unstructured conversation.

The people who saw the 4-star video reported feeling worse after the group conversation compared to those that watched the 2-star video. One reason for this could be because they felt more excluded during the conversations. Also, they did not anticipate the social costs of having an experience that separated them from the group.

In two separate studies, participants were asked to imagine how either they or another person would feel as an extraordinary experiencer taking part in the first study. Predictably, all participants said that they thought the people who saw the 4-star video would feel better than those who watched the 2-star video. They also thought that such people would talk more during the post-movie discussion, and would not feel excluded.

"When choosing between experiences, don't just think about how they will feel when they happen - think about how they will impact your social interactions," says Cooney. "If an experience turns you into someone who has nothing in common with others, then no matter how good it was, it won't make you happy in the long run."

The findings were published online in the journal Psychological Science. The study was funded by a research grant from the National Science Foundation.