The dissociation of emotion expression from emotion experience: A personality perspective

When we want to know what others are feeling, we look to the face for clues . However, individual differences matter: Some faces are more expressive th an others. Do both emotion experience and dispositional expressivity predic t emotion expression? Based on an analysis of display rules, the authors hy pothesized that expressivity would moderate the relation between experience and expression for negative, but not for positive, emotion. Study 1 examin ed the relation between habitual emotion experience and peer-rated expressi ve behavior and showed the predicted moderator effect for negative emotion: Experience was related to expression only for dispositionally high-express ivity participants, not for low-expressivity participants. For positive emo tion, however, experience was related to expression for both groups. Study 2 replicated these findings using momentary emotion experience and objectiv ely coded expressive behavior during films that elicited amusement and sadn ess. Results are interpreted in terms of low expressivity individuals' prop ensity to dynamically regulate negative emotion-expressive behavior.