A total of 74 Ss were induced to adopt expressions of fear, anger, disgust, and sadness in Experiment 1. Each expression significantly increased feelings of its particular emotion compared with at least two of the others, a result that cannot be explained by a single dimension. Postures should play the same role in emotional experience as facial expressions. However, the demonstrated effects of postures (Riskind, 1984) could also represent a single dimension of variation. In Experiment 2, subjects were induced to adopt postures characteristic of fear, anger, and sadness. Again, the effects were specific to the postures. These two studies indicate that emotional behavior produces changes in feelings that specifically match the behavior.
Recent research suggests that deliberate manipulation of expressive behaviours might self-regulate emotional experiences. Eighty people were first induced to adopt emotional expressions in a successfully disguised procedure that identified whether their feelings were affected by their expressive behaviour when they were unaware of the nature and purpose of that behaviour. They then deliberately attempted to change emotional feelings by adopting or inhibiting emotional behaviours, or by focusing on or being distracted from 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 behaviours. In contrast, people identified as unresponsive to their own emotional behaviour were most affected by deliberate focus on or distraction from emotional thoughts. The effectiveness of techniques for emotional self-regulation depends on a match with characteristics of the person.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.