That “poker face” just might lose you the game! The impact of expressive suppression and mimicry on sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion.

Abstract

Successful interpersonal functioning often requires both the ability to mask inner feelings and the ability to accurately recognize others' expressions--but what if effortful control of emotional expressions impacts the ability to accurately read others? In this study, we examined the influence of self-controlled expressive suppression and mimicry on facial affect sensitivity--the speed with which one can accurately identify gradually intensifying facial expressions of emotion. Muscle activity of the brow (corrugator, related to anger), upper lip (levator, related to disgust), and cheek (zygomaticus, related to happiness) were recorded using facial electromyography while participants randomized to one of three conditions (Suppress, Mimic, and No-Instruction) viewed a series of six distinct emotional expressions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust) as they morphed from neutral to full expression. As hypothesized, individuals instructed to suppress their own facial expressions showed impairment in facial affect sensitivity. Conversely, mimicry of emotion expressions appeared to facilitate facial affect sensitivity. Results suggest that it is difficult for a person to be able to simultaneously mask inner feelings and accurately "read" the facial expressions of others, at least when these expressions are at low intensity. The combined behavioral and physiological data suggest that the strategies an individual selects to control his or her own expression of emotion have important implications for interpersonal functioning.

Facial expression to emotional stimuli in non-psychotic disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Suppression or avoidance of emotion is suggested to lead to a rebound effect whereby the emotion becomes increasingly more intense (Gross and John, 2003). Expressive suppression of emotions leads to decreased sensitivity in recognizing facial expressions, while deliberate mimicry increases this capacity (Schneider et al, 2013).…”

“…Aldao et al, 2010;Bylsma et al, 2008;Oldershaw et al, 2011;Tchanturia et al, 2013). Decreased emotion recognition abilities were found in a broad range of mental disorders (Kret and Ploeger, 2015), and research has shown that voluntary and involuntary facial expression of emotions plays a key role in the recognition of others' emotions (Künecke et al, 2014;Schneider et al, 2013;Sel et al, 2015). This process has been referred to as "embodiment of emotions", meaning that the perceiver simulates the emotion on a motor, somatosensory and affective level and thus deduces its meaning and reward value (Niedenthal et al, 2010;Zajonc et al, 1989).…”

Expressive suppression and neural responsiveness to nonverbal affective cues

“…Specifically, our finding that preferential use of expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy is linked to neural markers of preferential processing of nonverbal affective cues ought to be integrated with recent reports on the adverse effects of instructed expressive suppression on emotion recognition accuracy (Schneider, Hempel, & Lynch, 2013). If chronic use of expressive suppression has similar adverse effects on affective cue labeling, then it would imply that individuals who habitually suppress their emotions may find themselves in a very challenging position in social circumstances.…”

With Feeling: How Emotions Shape Negotiation

“…Two studies have found heightened arousal, which can be triggered by a fit between negotiators' agreeableness and the negotiating context, leads to better economic outcomes especially if negotiators feel positive about the negotiation (Dimotakis, Conlon, and Ilies ; Brown and Curhan ). Returning to our discussion of mimicry, research has found that negotiators who suppress their own emotional expressions are less sensitive to facial expressions of emotion in their counterparts than are negotiators who engage in mimicry (Schneider, Hempel, and Lynch ). This finding highlights a dilemma for negotiators who, on the one hand, may benefit from concealing their emotions yet, on the other hand, incur the costs of failing to recognize opponents' emotional reactions.…”