The deliberate control of emotional experience through control of expressions

Recent research suggests that deliberate manipulation of expressive behavio urs might self-regulate emotional experiences. Eighty people were first ind uced to adopt emotional expressions in a successfully disguised procedure t hat identified whether their feelings were affected by their expressive beh aviour when they were unaware of the nature and purpose of that behaviour. They then deliberately attempted to change emotional feelings by adopting o r inhibiting emotional behaviours, or by focusing on or being distracted fr om situational cues for emotion. Participants more responsive to their own behaviour in the disguised procedure felt more intensely when they adopted emotional behaviours, and less intensely when they inhibited those behaviou rs. In contrast, people identified as unresponsive to their own emotional b ehaviour were most affected by deliberate focus on or distraction from emot ional thoughts. The effectiveness of techniques for emotional self-regulati on depends on a match with characteristics of the person.