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The Social Consequences of Expressive Suppression Emotion Copyright 2003 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 2003, Vol. 3, No. 1, 48–67 1528-3542/03/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.48 The Social Consequences of Expressive Suppression Emily A. Butler Boris Egloff Stanford University Johannes Gutenberg-Universita¨t Mainz Frank H. Wilhelm, Nancy C. Smith, Elizabeth A. Erickson, and James J. Gross Stanford University At times, people keep their emotions from showing during social interactions. The authors’ analysis suggests that such expressive suppression should disrupt commu- nication and increase stress levels. To test this hypothesis, the authors conducted 2 studies in which unacquainted pairs of women discussed an upsetting topic. In Study 1, one member of each pair was randomly assigned to (a) suppress her emotional behavior, (b) respond naturally, or (c) cognitively reappraise in a way that reduced emotional responding. Suppression alone disrupted communication and magnified blood pressure responses in the suppressors’ partners. In Study 2, suppression had a negative impact on the regulators’ emotional experience and increased blood pressure in both regulators and their partners. Suppression also reduced rapport and inhibited relationship formation. It occasionally seems desirable to reduce or even suppression. It has been systematically studied both in entirely suppress emotional expressions that arise dur- solitary situations (Gross, 1998a; Gross & Levenson, ing our interactions with others. For example, when a 1993, 1997; Richards & Gross, 1999, 2000) and in friend angers us, we may try to prevent further con- noninteractive social situations such as being ob- flict by suppressing our outward signs of anger until served by strangers (Harris, 2001). Surprisingly little we can figure out how best to resolve the issue, or we is known, however, about either the personal or social may hide our distress about witnessing a disturbing outcomes that accompany suppression during social event because we expect that talking about the event exchanges. This is a particularly unfortunate gap in will only increase our feelings of upset. our understanding, given that expressive suppression In the emotion regulation literature, the process of is quite common during social interaction (Gross & consciously inhibiting emotional expressions while John, 2002) and that diverse lines of evidence suggest emotionally aroused has been referred to as expressive important links between emotion expression, social relationships, and health (House, Landis, & Umber- son, 1988; Schwarzer & Leppin, 1991; Seeman, 2001; Uchino, Cacioppo, & Kiekolt-Glaser, 1996). Emily A. Butler, Frank H. Wilhelm, Nancy C. Smith, To generate hypotheses regarding the consequences Elizabeth A. Erickson, and James J. Gross, Department of of expressive suppression during social interaction, Psychology, Stanford University; Boris Egloff, Department we turn to the literatures on emotion regulation of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universita¨t, Mainz, (Gross, 1998b, 1999a, 1999b) and interpersonal com- Germany. munication (H. H. Clark, 1996; Kappas & Descote- We thank Tina Huang for her help with data collection aux, in press; Keltner & Kring, 1998). As we describe and data reduction for Study 1. We also thank Meg Given, Leonard Horowitz, Oliver John, Jessica Letchamanan, Ni- here, the picture that emerges from the various litera- chole Schectman, and members of the Stanford Psycho- ture is that expressive suppression may be a particu- physiology Laboratory for their help with this research pro- larly costly form of emotion regulation that disrupts gram. multiple aspects of social exchange, creating stress for Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- both the regulator and the interaction partner alike.1 dressed to James J. Gross, Department of Psychology, Stan- ford University, Building 420, Jordan Hall, Stanford, Cali- fornia 94305-2130. E-mail: [email protected] 1Peter Salovey was the Action Editor for this article. 48 SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF EXPRESSIVE SUPPRESSION 49 Personal Consequences of what leads to this discrepancy between suppressing Expressive Suppression positive and negative emotion in noninteractive set- tings (Gross & Levenson, 1997). Gross’s (1998b, 2002) process model of emotion Findings regarding the physiological consequences regulation provides a general framework for studying of expressive suppression are more mixed. Although how expressive suppression affects the regulator. This occasional studies have found either no differences model emphasizes that emotions unfold over time and between expressive suppression and spontaneous re- distinguishes between different forms of emotion sponding (Bush, Barr, McHugo, & Lanzetta, 1989) or regulation on the basis of when they have their pri- even decreases in physiological activation associated mary impact on the emotion-generative process. Ex- with suppression (Zuckerman, Klorman, Larrance, & pressive suppression is seen as a type of response- Spiegel, 1981), the more typical finding is that sup- focused emotion regulation because it selectively pression is accompanied by increased sympathetic down-regulates the behavioral component of an emo- and cardiovascular responding (Gross, 1998a; Gross tional response after the emotional response is already & Levenson, 1993, 1997; Harris, 2001; Richards & underway (Gross, 1998b, 1999a, 1999b). Gross, 1999, 2000). Thus, even though the bulk of the In this model, although we would expect suppres- evidence points toward a physiological cost of sup- sion to decrease emotion-expressive behavior, we pression, the magnitude and boundary conditions of would not expect decreases in the subjective experi- these effects are by no means clear. ence of emotion, which is not the target of regulation. In terms of the cognitive consequences of suppres- Given the cognitive and physical work required to sion, several slide- and film-viewing studies have monitor and suppress ongoing emotion-expressive be- shown that suppression reduces memory for social havior, we would expect increases in physiological information (e.g., individuals’ names and occupa- measures that are sensitive to effort. We also would tions) presented at the time of the regulatory effort, expect decreases in measures of cognitive functioning which suggests increases in cognitive load (Richards that are sensitive to the multitasking required to sup- & Gross, 1999, 2000). This finding is particularly press emotional behavior. Several experiments have relevant when we consider the social consequences of examined these predictions regarding behavioral, ex- suppression. If suppression is cognitively costly, then periential, physiological, and cognitive consequences it might be expected to distract the regulator from his of suppression. or her partner. This should sorely tax the regulator’s These studies show that by early adulthood, indi- ability to carry out the basic processes required for viduals are quite adept at inhibiting the outward signs conversation maintenance, including the generation of of emotion. In both solitary slide- and film-viewing appropriately contingent responses, and this in turn paradigms (Gross, 1998a; Gross & Levenson, 1993, could be quite disruptive to the interaction (Lieber- 1997; Richards & Gross, 1999, 2000), and in non- man & Rosenthal, 2001). interactive social contexts (Friedman & Miller- Herringer, 1991; Harris, 2001), participants are able Social Consequences of Expressive Suppression to substantially reduce positive and negative expres- Theories of interpersonal communication posit that sive behavior. With respect to changes in emotion face-to-face interaction involves not only information experience, several studies have found that suppress- exchange but also (a) interpersonal coordination in the ing negative emotion expressions does not decrease service of accomplishing various joint goals (e.g., ex- negative emotion experience. For example, suppress- changing goods, complying with an experimenter to ing emotion expressions in response to either a dis- have a conversation about a specific topic); and (b) gusting or a sad film (Gross, 1998a; Gross & Leven- the ongoing negotiation of the relative status and in- son, 1997) and suppressing signs of embarrassment in timacy of the interaction partners (H. H. Clark, 1996; public (Harris, 2001) did not alter the experiences of Fridlund, 1994; Harker & Keltner, 2001; Kappas & those negative emotions. Interestingly, suppression Descoteaux, in press; Keltner & Kring, 1998). These does seem to dampen positive experience. Amuse- functions are both intentionally signaled and uninten- ment was decreased both when participants sup- tionally indexed through multiple communicative pressed their expressive behavior while watching an channels including verbal content, facial expression, amusing film (Gross & Levenson, 1997) and while voice intonation, and gesture. If expressive suppres- reading cartoons (McCanne & Anderson, 1987; sion results in reduced positive and negative emotion Strack, Martin, & Stepper, 1988). It is not yet clear expression, as well as distraction, what consequences 50 BUTLER ET AL. would we expect for the regulator’s partner and for vestigated stonewalling, characterized by low levels the relationship between them? of emotion expression, and have linked this process Consider the first function, interpersonal coordina- with increased physiological responding and negative tion. Many authors have emphasized that responsive- emotion experience in the
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