Expressive suppression to pain in others reduces negative emotion but not vicarious pain in the observer

The Perception of School Life From the Perspective of Popular and Rejected Students

“…One of these strategies may be expressive suppression. Based on research findings on expressive suppression and pain empathy ( Anderson et al, 2021 ), expressive suppression of pain expression faces was found to reduce neural representations of negative emotion. According to Hart’s (2014) Integrative Theory of Psychological Defense, self-deluding defense mechanisms are primarily motivated by a sense of insecurity characterized by the experience of vulnerability and a lack of confidence in one’s own ability to cope with threats.…”

The neural bases of expressive suppression: A systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies

“…Similarly, social norms may require the suppression of expressing one's emotions (Butler and Gross, 2004), such as trying to show less positive emotions when winning a competition (Kalokerinos et al, 2014). Expressive suppression may also be adaptive for certain professions, such as for physicians and clinical practitioners, who may use suppression of their facial expressions in response to negative stimuli (e.g., observing pain in others) to optimally perform their job (Anderson et al, 2021;Decety et al, 2010;Hojat et al, 2009), although, to our knowledge, empirical studies directly testing this have yet to be performed.…”

“…Three of these studies justified the inclusion of females only by referring to evidence that the strength of the emotional response differs between genders (Chen et al, 2017;Goldin et al, 2008;Vrtička et al, 2011). Regarding cultural background, four studies included only US participants (Hayes et al, 2010;Goldin et al, 2008;Katsumi and Dolcos, 2018;Katsumi et al, 2020), three studies participants from China (Anderson et al, 2021;Chen et al, 2017;Li et al, 2021), five studies samples from the European Germanic cultures (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland; Dörfel et al, 2014;Vanderhasselt et al, 2013a;Van der Meer et al, 2014;van der Velde et al, 2015;Vrtička et al, 2011), and one study both the US and Chinese samples (Anderson et al, 2021).…”

“…This study investigated the activation of brain areas during three distinct temporal stages (first 0-4.5 s, second 4.5-10.5 s, and third 10.5-15 s) of the 15 s film clips. While half of the studies gave some examples of the content of the stimuli (Chen et al, 2017;Goldin et al, 2008;Hayes et al, 2010;Katsumi and Dolcos, 2018;Li et al, 2021;Vrtička et al, 2011), the others only referred to them as negative or neutral (Anderson et al, 2021;Dörfel et al, 2014;Katsumi et al, 2020;Vanderhasselt et al, 2013a;Van der Meer et al, 2014;van der Velde et al, 2015). In the study by Anderson et al (2021) pictures of faces displaying neutral and pain expressions were used in addition to pictures from the IAPS.…”

“…While half of the studies gave some examples of the content of the stimuli (Chen et al, 2017;Goldin et al, 2008;Hayes et al, 2010;Katsumi and Dolcos, 2018;Li et al, 2021;Vrtička et al, 2011), the others only referred to them as negative or neutral (Anderson et al, 2021;Dörfel et al, 2014;Katsumi et al, 2020;Vanderhasselt et al, 2013a;Van der Meer et al, 2014;van der Velde et al, 2015). In the study by Anderson et al (2021) pictures of faces displaying neutral and pain expressions were used in addition to pictures from the IAPS. The reliability of inducing negative emotions was ensured by either having participants rate the valence of the stimuli, or by relying on normative ratings or ratings from earlier studies.…”