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.