See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335196604 Can I tell you how I feel? Perceived partner responsiveness encourages emotional expression Article in Emotion · August 2019 DOI: 10.1037/emo0000650 CITATIONS READS 0 176 5 authors, including: Yan Ruan Harry Reis University of Rochester University of Rochester 3 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS 176 PUBLICATIONS 13,533 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Margaret S Clark Jennifer L. Hirsch Yale University Yale University 144 PUBLICATIONS 9,392 CITATIONS 6 PUBLICATIONS 50 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Are You into Me? Uncertainty and Sexual Desire in Online Encounters and Established Relationships View project Hook Up Motives View project All content following this page was uploaded by Yan Ruan on 18 November 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Emotion Can I Tell You How I Feel? Perceived Partner Responsiveness Encourages Emotional Expression Yan Ruan, Harry T. Reis, Margaret S. Clark, Jennifer L. Hirsch, and Brian D. Bink Online First Publication, August 15, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000650 CITATION Ruan, Y., Reis, H. T., Clark, M. S., Hirsch, J. L., & Bink, B. D. (2019, August 15). Can I Tell You How I Feel? Perceived Partner Responsiveness Encourages Emotional Expression. Emotion. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000650 Emotion © 2019 American Psychological Association 2019, Vol. 1, No. 999, 000 1528-3542/19/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000650 Can I Tell You How I Feel? Perceived Partner Responsiveness Encourages Emotional Expression Yan Ruan and Harry T. Reis Margaret S. Clark, Jennifer L. Hirsch, and University of Rochester Brian D. Bink Yale University When do people express their emotions to other people and when do they choose not to do so? Emotional experience—positive or negative—often leads people to reveal their feelings to others, especially to close relationship partners. Although emotional expression has been incorporated into recent dyadic models of emotion regulation, little research has examined the specific interpersonal processes responsible for facilitating or inhibiting emotional expression. This article reports results from a pair of methodologically distinct studies examining the impact of perceived partner responsiveness (PPR) on emotional expression. The results of Study 1, a 2-week daily diary study, demonstrated that within-person variations in the perceived responsive- ness of a close partner were associated with corresponding day-to-day variations in emotional expression to that partner. In Study 2, in the context of a stressful situation, we manipulated perceptions of a romantic partner’s responsiveness and then measured emotion expression toward that partner. Higher levels of experimentally induced PPR causally led to greater expression of anxiety. Together, these studies identify PPR as an important interpersonal mechanism underlying emotional expression. Keywords: responsiveness, perceived partner responsiveness, emotional expression Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000650.supp Felt emotion is sometimes expressed to others; at other times, it ing one’s emotions for both nonexpressers and their partners (e.g., is not. Though researchers have previously explored individual English, John, Srivastava, & Gross, 2012; Peters, Overall, & differences in emotional openness (e.g., Gross, 1998), to date little Jamieson, 2014), people nonetheless do not always express their research has been reported on the conditions that determine when emotions, even to others with whom they are in close relationships people do and do not express the emotions they feel to others. In (e.g., English, Lee, John, & Gross, 2017; Richards, Butler, & this article, we describe a pair of methodologically distinct studies Gross, 2003). showing that relational context, specifically perceived partner re- Expressing emotion (or not) is generally conceptualized as a sponsiveness (PPR), guides people’s expression of both positive distinct emotion-regulation strategy used to modulate the trajec- and negative emotion to that partner. tory of the emotional experience, shaping both the intensity and duration of emotions (Brans, Koval, Verduyn, Lim, & Kuppens, When Do People Express Emotions? 2013; Gross & John, 2002; Verduyn, Van Mechelen, & Tuer- linckx, 2011). As such, these expressions of emotion, which may When people experience emotions—positive or negative—they reflect deliberate or automatic choices, may fulfill or thwart any of often describe them to other people, an action defined as emotional a diverse variety of affective goals, such as lessening unhappy expression. Considerable research suggests that doing so enhances feelings, eliminating a source of distress, or prolonging happy liking, intimacy, trust, and received support (Graham, Huang, feelings. Often, pursuit of these affective goals involves other This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its alliedClark, publishers. & Helgeson, 2008; Nils & Rimé, 2012), both in the moment people—for example, individuals regulating emotions often draw This article is intended solely for the personal use ofand the individual user and is not over to be disseminated broadly. the long term (Cameron & Overall, 2018). Despite the on other people as resources, to receive support or advice, to well-documented personal and interpersonal costs of not express- promote closeness, or to boost one’s image in the eyes of others (e.g., Fitzsimons, Finkel, & Vandellen, 2015; Kennedy-Moore & Watson, 2001; Orehek, Forest, & Barbaro, 2018; Rimé, 2007, 2009; Zaki & Williams, 2013). Although research has examined the effectiveness of certain specific interpersonal strategies in X Yan Ruan and X Harry T. Reis, Department of Clinical and Social achieving emotion-regulation goals (e.g., Cameron & Overall, Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester; X Margaret S. Clark, 2018; Thoits, 1984), relatively few researchers have looked at how X Jennifer L. Hirsch, and Brian D. Bink, Department of Psychology, relational context itself affects the initial decision to enact a Yale University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Harry T. behavior central to most interpersonal strategies—that is, to ex- Reis, Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, Univer- press (or not express) one’s emotion to others. As a step toward sity of Rochester, River Campus Box 270266, Rochester, NY 14627-0266. better integrating the emotion and relationship literatures, here, we E-mail: [email protected] examine how relational context influences emotional expression. 1 2 RUAN, REIS, CLARK, HIRSCH, AND BINK We suggest that the functional significance of emotional relying on the relationship and are more willing to self-disclose expression depends on the nature of the relationship between (McCarthy, Wood, & Holmes, 2017). In contrast, when the pos- the emotion-expresser and the recipient (Barasch, Levine, & sibility of nonresponsiveness or even exploitation becomes appre- Schweitzer, 2016; Clark & Taraban, 1991; Von Culin, Hirsch, ciable, self-protection goals (which often involve being emotion- & Clark, 2018). Emotions often convey critical information ally closed) become prominent. To the best of our knowledge, this about the self that requires people to balance the potential gains of model has not yet been tested in the specific case of expressing expression against the foreseeable risks in doing so. For example, emotions that arise in everyday life (as opposed to emotions expressions of anxiety and sadness reveal the person’s vulnerabil- triggered by the relationship itself). ities and dependencies to others (Clark & Taraban, 1991). Whereas Integrating the Gross (2015) and Murray et al. (2006) models is these expressions can lead to the receipt of social support (Clark, important for at least two reasons: (a) it identifies a conceptual Ouellette, Powell, & Milberg, 1987; Graham et al., 2008; Öhman bridge linking growing literatures in the subfields of emotion and & Mineka, 2001), they also can be exploited or ignored (Coyne & relationship science, and (b) it provides insight into a specific Whiffen, 1995), resulting in the psychological pain that accompanies relational process that underlies emotional expression. With regard such rejection (Eisenberger & Lieberman, 2004). Although there is to this latter point, Clark et al. (2001) speculated that people’s risk in revealing one’s vulnerabilities, emotional openness—that is, emotional openness should depend on their anticipating or per- the disclosure of the emotions that one is experiencing—is also central ceiving that partners will be responsive when they convey their to the development of intimacy, as the intimacy process model pro- emotional states. The two studies reported in this article test this poses (Reis & Shaver, 1988), and is therefore key to relationship specific and as yet untested hypothesis. development. Similarly, expressions of happiness can lead others to like us more (e.g., Clark & Taraban, 1991; Staw, Sutton, & Pelled, Perceived Partner Responsiveness Encourages 1994), to find us more attractive (Mueser, Grau, Sussman, & Emotional Expression Rosen, 1984), and to help us savor the moment (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004). Yet, expressions of happiness also can PPR refers to the belief